Back Around
by SMHHHHFan
Summary: When Stephanie was 15 she had a crush on her brother's best friend Paul Levesque. He was also her friend until a party changed things between them and they lost contact with each other for 5 years. What happens when they see each other again after being apart for so long?
1. Chapter 1

Stephanie sat in her room in front of her mirror applying her cherry red lip gloss. There done thought Stephanie as she laid the lip gloss down on her vanity dresser. She assessed her hair and makeup one last time before heading to her closet to pick out the perfect outfit for the night. Shane was having a party tonight to celebrate his 21st birthday even though he had turned 21 a couple of days ago. Vince and Linda had wanted to throw him a birthday party with just family on his birthday so this was the first opportunity he had since then to throw one with just his friends. Vince and Linda had went out of town for the next two days so this was his chance. Luckily Vince and Linda had let Stephanie stay with Shane because Stephanie had wanted to stay home and be at this party. The doorbell rang as Stephanie's heart sped up hoping that it was Paul who had arrived. This was the reason she had wanted to attended the party, she had a huge crush on Paul. She couldn't help it even though he was quite older than her. She was fifteen and he was twenty two but he had always been nice to her ever since him and Shane had became friends. He always acknowledge her when he came to the house to hang out with Shane and engaged in conversation with her even though Shane ignored her most of the time. Her crush on him had developed over the last year and she wanted to be around him as much as she could.

Stephanie looked at herself in the full length mirror at the dress she had picked out. It was black dress with spaghetti straps that came down to just above her knees. She had paired the dress with black open toed high heels. She took one last look at herself and headed out of her room and downstairs.

"How many people are coming?" Stephanie heard Shane ask as she made it to the bottom stair of the steps.

"I don't know I invited as many of ours friends as possible. They might have invited other people they know" Stephanie heard the familiar voice answer. It was Paul, he had been the one at the door earlier just as she had hoped. She felt giddy and nervous as she made her way towards the kitchen where Shane and Paul's voices were coming from.

She made it to the doorway of the kitchen and stopped. He was sitting on a bar stool at the kitchen counter with his back turned at her, he was wearing his black leather jacket and denim jeans with his hair tied back. Shane was standing in front of him on the other side of the counter and sitting on the counter was a large supply of alcohol.

"What are you doing?" Shane asked as he looked in her direction and seen what she was wearing.

"Just waiting on the party" replied Stephanie as Paul turned and looked in her direction. Paul looked at what she was wearing and smiled at her. She felt her breath hitch in her throat, she loved his smile.

"Don't you look all fancy little McMahon" said Paul as Stephanie smiled shyly. Little McMahon had been Paul's nickname for her ever since they had met. He hadn't seen her as more than Shane's little sister but she was hoping she could prove tonight that she was growing up. She was no longer that eleven year old girl he met four years ago.

"I don't think so. You're not invited, you are way too young" said Shane sternly.

"I'm fifteen Shane" replied Stephanie crossing her arms across her chest

"I don't care, you are still too young. There is going to be alcohol and people way older than you. You are not participating in this" Stephanie rolled her eyes at her brother. She wasn't sure if Shane was trying to be overprotective or he just didn't want her to be around.

"Let her stay Shane. I'm sure you were doing stuff like this at fifteen. Let her live a little, I'll make sure she doesn't get in trouble" said Paul as he winked at Stephanie and Stephanie felt the blood rush to her cheeks.

"Absolutely not" whispered Shane to Paul. Stephanie stood and watch them whisper back and forth to each other not quite hearing what they were saying. She heard Shane whisper the word young a couple of times but she couldn't quite make out anything else. Finally Shane looked over towards her.

"You can stay but only if you don't drink and just try to stay out of the way. DO NOT tell mom and dad, got it?" Shane asked looking at her with a serious expression on his face.

"Fine" replied Stephanie with a smile of victory on her face.

Twenty minutes later the party had started, the house was full of people everywhere and people just kept pouring in. Stephanie had been pretty much glued to Paul's side as he mingled with different people at the party. Occasionally he would put his arm around her shoulder and playfully wink at her. Shane seemed to keep an eye on her as she moved around the party, probably making sure she wasn't drinking. He still wasn't happy that she was down here in the midst of the partying.

"I'm going to outside for a minute" Paul said into her ear so she could hear over the music.

"Okay I'm going to head to the kitchen for a soda" replied Stephanie back into his ear.

She watched him head outside before she headed through the crowds of people to the kitchen. Stephanie quickly grabbed a soda and weaved her way through people standing around talking and some that were dancing. She headed outside in search of Paul. She didn't have to look very far as she spotted him sitting on a bench in the yard. Stephanie headed away from the people standing on the porch talking and some couples making out. She made her way to the bench and sat down next to Paul as he took a drink out of his red plastic cup which she was sure contained alcohol. He smiled over at her as she opened her soda and took a drink.

"Having fun?" Paul asked

"Yeah aren't you?" Stephanie asked as he took another drink.

"I'm having a good time. I just needed to away from the blaring music for a minute" replied Paul sighing and tilting his head back.

"Thanks by the way for getting Shane to let me stay" Stephanie said as Paul smiled.

"Ah it was nothing, besides you'll be sneaking off to party's like this soon enough. At least here we can keep an eye out for you" replied Paul taking another drink from his cup. Stephanie smiled as she felt her heart melt a little knowing he cared about her.

"So what are you drinking? Asked Stephanie curiously as Paul shifted his body turning towards her more.

"Jack and coke, more Jack than anything" he took another drink as Stephanie watched him. As soon as he took a drink Stephanie grabbed the cup from him.

"What are you doing?" Paul asked suspiciously

"Just curious" replied Stephanie putting the cup to her lips.

"Don't you dare" replied Paul sternly

"Lighten up. You're starting to sound like Shane" Stephanie said as she put her lips on the side of the cup.

"Seriously don't. Your brother told you no drinking and you are too young for it" Paul replied as he went to grab the cup from her but she slid down the bench quickly and tipped the cup up taking a drink. Her nose scrunched up at the taste and she swallowed it with a bitter face. Paul looked at her disapprovingly and slid down the bench to where she was taking the cup from her.

"I told you not to do that" Paul said as he couldn't help but grin from the expression on her face

"Ugh how do you drink that?" Stephanie asked making another face as Paul started laughing

"You know I'm going to have to tell your brother"

"Please don't" pleaded Stephanie as her blue eyes widened. Paul leaned over closer to her with a smile. She could see the amusement in his brown eyes.

"What do I get if I don't?" Paul asked with a smile. Stephanie's heart started beating fast as she realized how close their faces were. Suddenly she leaned over to kiss him, like she had no control over her movements. Her eyes closed and ready for their lips to meet me when she felt a cool light breeze hit her face. She opened her eyes to see Paul had moved down the bench leaving space between them. Paul cleared his throat as he looked at her, Stephanie felt like she could die from embarrassment.

"Steph.."

"I don't want to talk about it" Stephanie interrupted wrapping her arms around herself as the wind start to pick up chilling her arms.

"Do you have feelings for me?" Paul asked not dropping what had just happened. Stephanie looked down and bit her bottom lip feeling her cheeks warm from embarrassment and tears starting to sting her eyes threatening to fall. Paul continued to stare at her as she tried to regain composure.

"Maybe" Stephanie replied quietly as she watched Paul slide back closer to her and put his arm around her. Stephanie couldn't help but feel pleased by this, maybe he liked her too.

"Steph I'm way too old for you" Stephanie felt the pain of his rejection sting in her chest. She knew it was too good to be true, he was just letting her down easy. "I could go to jail but not only that you're my best friends sister. It can never happen."

Stephanie couldn't stay here any longer. She pushed his arm off of her and quickly got up from the bench and raced for the house.

"Steph please don't be mad" Paul called after her as a car pulled into the driveway. Paul knew that car. He watched as Vince and Linda stepped out of the car and into the driveway. Vince's face was furious, Shane was in some deep trouble.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Shouted Vince at the two of them as they sat on the couch. Vince was pacing the floor in front of him trying to calm down. Everyone had fled from the party and Shane and Stephanie were now in trouble as he stood yelling at them.

"It wasn't my idea" Stephanie defended herself as she watched him pace the floor.

"Did you try to stop it?" Vince asked stopping and staring at her.

"No..."

"Exactly. You could of called your mother and I but you went a long with it so don't think you're off the hook young lady" Vince spat as he went to pacing the floors again.

"Vince maybe we should send them to their rooms until you have calmed down" Linda suggested looking at Vince worried that he might have a heart attack or pass out.

"I'm twenty one years old mother..." Shane started but stopped when Vince stopped and glared at him coldly.

"You know you're right Shane. You're twenty one years old you should be doing something other than partying every other day" said Vince a little to calmly. Stephanie and Shane knew this wasn't going to be good. "So I'm going to give you two options Shane."

"What are they?" Shane asked knowing he wasn't going to like it.

"First option is you go back to college and your mother and I will pay for it and even an apartment for you to live so you don't have to stay in a dorm. Second option is if you don't want to go back to school then you get a job and move out and pay your own bills. You put going back to college off for far too long now just so you can party and not have any responsibility and quiet frankly I'm tired of it. It's take to take responsibility and do something with your life. So which will it be?" Vince asked staring at him while Shane just stared back with a blank face.

"Vince I don't..." Linda started to say but Vince quickly cut her off.

"No Linda its time he acted like an adult"

"You know what dad I think I'm going to take the second option" replied Shane as everyone stared at him in shock. "I'm tired of being threatened to be cut off. I'll be out of here first thing tomorrow" Shane replied getting up and walking upstairs.

"Vince."

"No Linda he made his choice" replied Vince and then he looked over at Stephanie "and as for you, you're grounded until I say otherwise. No going out, no talking to friends on the phone, no sleepovers and you will help clean this house. From now on when your mother and I have to go out of town you will be coming with us."

Stephanie nodded her head not saying anything as she got up and went to her room. As soon as she closed her bedroom door she started crying. Paul had rejected her feelings towards him and now her brother was leaving, she wasn't sure she could take anything else for the night.

The next day Shane started moving his stuff with Paul's help. He was moving into an apartment with Paul half across from the state to get away from Vince. Vince had pissed him off and he was ready to make his own money and get out from underneath Vince's thumb. Stephanie stayed far away from Paul as he helped Shane, she didn't want to talk about last night. She couldn't help but still catch glances at him though. When the final box of Shane's was loaded he smiled at Stephanie and hugged her.

"Don't worry I'll come back and visit" whispered Shane in her ear.

"You promise?" Stephanie asked quietly

"Promise" Shane replied as he ended the hug and smiled at her and he turned and hugged Linda. He took one last look and climbed into the U-Haul and drove off.

Shane kept his promise and came back to visit often through the years but Stephanie never saw Paul again. Paul never showed up with Shane, she guessed it was because they seen each other all the time now so he had no reason to come here. In a way Stephanie was glad she didn't have to face him again but then again she was sad because she would never see him again.

 ***5 Years Later***

Stephanie's high heels echoed off the floor with each step she took as she made her way into the airport. She was a nervous wreck, she didn't know how this was going to go but she couldn't stay here any longer. Stephanie had been attending Boston University but lately getting up and going to classes everyday started to feel repetitive and mundane. She felt like she was missing out on other things, so after the spring semester was over Stephanie decided she would head back home to her parent's house and take a year off. Her 20th birthday would be in two months and she really wanted to be home and celebrate with family and friends and just let loose and have fun. She had been way too serious, always studying and hardly getting out. She did have some relationships but they were never really serious and her last boyfriend she had broke up with at the beginning of the year. She knew she was going back home so why prolong the relationship any longer? The only thing about going home was that her parents had no idea and she was sure they weren't going to be happy. She just hoped they would understand and not think she would do the same thing Shane did. Although Shane did turn his life around. He had went to community college and graduated and worked for some kind of law business and was pretty successful now.

Stephanie started to feel even more nervous as she boarded the plane and sat down in her seat. She really hoped her parents would let her stay with them and just give her the time she needed. Stephanie watched as people boarded the plane and when everyone had boarded she waited patiently to take off so she could face the problems ahead.

The cab pulled up to Stephanie's parents house as she got out her money to pay the cab driver. The flight here had felt so long, only because she was dreading actually making it here. Now that she was here she feel the anxiety rising in her chest.

"Thanks" said Stephanie as she paid the cab driver and opened the door and stepped out onto the curb with her suitcases.

Stephanie stood there for a moment just looking at the house praying that this would go a lot better then it had in her head. She slowly made her way up to the door and took a deep breath and walked inside.

Stephanie walked into the empty living room and put her suitcases down beside of the couch and sat down. She sank down in the couch closing her eyes, she really had missed being home.

"Linda" called a voice on the stairs behind her, it was her father's voice. Stephanie sat up and turned where she could see him but Vince wasn't looking in her direction as he came down the stairs. Finally he reached the bottom of the staircase "Linda..."

Vince had finally looked in Stephanie's direction, he had a confused expression in his face.

"Stephanie?"

"I know we haven't seen each other since the holidays dad but I haven't changed that much" joked Stephanie

"It's just I wasn't expecting to see you" Vince smiled coming over and hugging her. "Are you going to be staying home for the summer?"

"Actually.."

"Stephanie" Linda said as Stephanie turned to look at her. She had walked out of the kitchen with a smile on her face. Linda came over and hugged her just as Vince had done. "I missed you sweetie."

"I missed you too mom" smiled Stephanie as the hug ended.

"So did I hear your father correctly that you're home for the summer?" Asked Linda

"Well that's what I wanted to talk to you about..."

"It can wait until tonight" Vince said with a smile "I want us all to have a nice dinner together."

"You don't have to do that just because I'm home"

"Well...It's just not that. Shane is staying here for a couple of days and we can have dinner like we used to" Vince explained as he took out his ringing cellphone and excused himself and headed to his office.

"Wow I can't believe Shane is going to be staying here" said Stephanie to Linda in disbelief.

"Shane and your father are finally starting to see eye to eye. Shane came back here to look for an apartment because he got a better job offer closer to home. So Vince suggested he stay here, it surprised the hell out of me."

"I'm surprised too. I noticed over the holidays they were talking more than they have since...well that night" Stephanie trailed off with her sentence not wanting to bring that night up. It had took quiet awhile for Shane to even acknowledge Vince's presence in the room when he would visit and she was happy that they were finally getting along again.

"Hopefully the past is behind us now" Linda replied almost like she was reading Stephanie's mind. "Why don't you go upstairs and unpack and I'll make us a light lunch."

Linda smiled and hugged Stephanie one last before heading to the kitchen. Stephanie grabbed her suitcases and headed upstairs to her room.

As soon as Stephanie had unpacked she decided to take a quick shower and change into something more comfortable. She felt a lot better after the shower and her nerves finally calmed down after seeing how happy her parents were to have her home. She just hoped they still would be happy when she told them she would be staying for the year. Stephanie pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as she made her way back downstairs. Stephanie had made it halfway downstairs when she looked up to see Shane coming in to the living room.

"Shane!" Stephanie exclaimed excitedly as he looked up at her and his face broke into a huge grin. She practically raced down the stairs to him and threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"I didn't expect to see you" said Shane as they broke from the hug. Stephanie really had missed Shane after he moved out even though he had annoyed her when he did live there. Then she hardly got to see any of her family after to going to college and it was a great feeling to know she would be seeing them everyday again, especially since Shane was moving back.

"Where should I put all of this Shane?" A familiar voice asked that Stephanie knew all to well.

"Just pick one of the guestrooms" replied Shane as he moved out in front of Stephanie leaving her looking down the entrance hallway at Paul. Stephanie felt her heart beat faster. No there is no way you still have feelings for him, its been five years thought Stephanie to herself as she watched him fumble with suitcases. He hadn't even notice her as he had his attention on the suitcases, finally when he had got as many suitcases as he could carry he looked up straight into her eyes. Paul just stood there rooted to his spot still holding on to the suitcases.

"Little McMahon?" Paul asked in disbelief and in that moment Stephanie realized how much she detested that nickname. She wasn't a little girl anymore. Paul finally broke eye contact with her and she felt relieved because she had started to feel a little uncomfortable just standing there staring at each other. Then she realized he had only broke eye contact because he was now standing there running his eyes down her body. She felt the heat in cheeks as she suddenly felt exposed, she had threw on a low cut t-shirt that revealed a little cleavage and a pair of shorts that were almost a little to short earlier after her shower. She wasn't sure why Paul was standing there staring at her like that. She knew her clothes were a little revealing but he made it clear that he still thought of her as "Little McMahon" since that was the first words out of his mouth to her. She still couldn't help but feel the butterflies in her stomach like she used to and the way he was staring at her made her feel weak in the knees.

"Yeah it's been awhile" said Stephanie breaking the silence as he stopped eyeing her and started making his way into the living room. When Paul made it to the living room he put the suitcases down and she suddenly felt his arms wrap around her into a hug. Stephanie was surprised but return the hug as her heart started frantically beating in her chest. The last time she had seen him it seemed like he didn't want to even sit beside her in case she touched him, so she was surprised he was hugging her as if nothing had happened.

"Steph you remember Paul" said Shane stating the obvious.

"Oh is that who this is" Stephanie joked as the hug ended and Paul smirked at her.

"You know you could never forget me" laughed Paul as Stephanie felt her cheeks go red. She wondered if he was referring to the crush she once had on him.

"Stepha...oh Paul and Shane are here" Linda said as she came into the living room.

"We made it safely and thanks again Linda for letting us crash here" replied Paul as he picked up the suitcases once again.

"It's really no problem. Make yourself at home"

"Okay well lets get this suitcases upstairs and you can pick a guestroom" said Shane as he went and picked up the suitcases that Paul left sitting in the hallway. Stephanie watched speechless as Paul headed upstairs with Shane closely behind him. She had no idea that Paul was going to be staying there too, she just thought it was Shane.

"I came in here Stephanie to tell you that lunch is ready" said Linda breaking her out of her thoughts. Stephanie just smiled at Linda as they started walking towards the kitchen.

Stephanie was sitting at the kitchen counter enjoying her chicken salad sandwich with Linda. She had definitely missed her mom doing small stuff like this for her. She just missed home in general.

"So you didn't mention anything about Paul staying here too" Stephanie said as she finished a bite of her sandwich.

"Is it a problem?" Linda asked confused

"No I was just surprised that's all. I haven't seen him in forever" replied Stephanie nonchalantly trying to make sure Linda didn't know the feelings she once had for him, or maybe still had.

"There you are" said Vince as he strolled into the kitchen "I talked to Shane about dinner tonight so it will be tonight at seven."

"Sounds good" replied Stephanie taking another bite of her sandwich.

"Thanks for having lunch with me Stephanie but I have some things to do before dinner tonight" Linda said as she got up and put her dish in the sink.

"No thank you. I missed this" Stephanie with a smile as Linda came over and gave her a hug.

"I missed this too" replied Linda and then her and Vince headed out of the kitchen leaving Stephanie to finish her lunch.

Stephanie picked up her wine glass to take another drink when she noticed she had finished it off. Stephanie picked up the bottle to pour more but found that it was empty. Linda and her had finished off what was left in the bottle apparently, although there couldn't of been been very much in it to begin with since that had only had a glass each. Stephanie got up and went to the cabinet where her mom usually put the wine. Stephanie wasn't of legal age to drink yet but Linda would let her drink a glass or two with her on occasion so she was sure Linda wouldn't mind if she got another glass.

As Stephanie went to grab the bottle of wine in the cabinet she felt someone push up against her and grab the bottle before she did.

"Is someone trying to get a little drunk?" Her body tensed up at the sound of his voice and at how close his body was to her's.

"No I'm not trying to get drunk. I'm just having another glass" Stephanie replied a little defensively. She felt like he was trying to scold her for drinking just like that night...no she wouldn't go back and relieve that embarrassing memory. Paul just stood there with a smirk on his face until he handed her the bottle. Stephanie slid out of the way and went back to sit in her seat.

"How have you been?" Paul asked as she sat down and poured another glass of wine.

"I've been good" replied Stephanie with a smile. She wondered if he was trying to make conversation just to be nice, he was probably just trying to clear things up between them from what happened five years ago. They never had got to talk about it so he was probably just trying to make sure they could still be friends and put that night behind them. Well she gladly would, she never wanted to talk about that night.

"So..." trailed Paul

"So..." replied Stephanie back not really sure what to say. She couldn't remember a time when conversation was ever this hard with him.

"Are you seeing anyone?" Paul asked nonchalantly, she guessed he was trying to make small talk.

"No, I actually broke up with someone at the beginning of the year" replied Stephanie taking a drink of her wine.

"Really?" Paul asked surprised. She was a little taken back, he sounded surprised that someone would date her. Well there was some guys who didn't think of her as just a annoying little girl she thought to herself.

"What about you?" Stephanie asked curiously, hopefully she didn't sound like some lovesick puppy who never got over him.

"No not at that the moment" he answered as Stephanie politely nodded and smiled.

"When did it become so hard to just have a conversation between us" Stephanie blurted out. It must have been the alcohol making her feel a little more brave than usual. Paul chuckled as he came over and sat down beside of her, she turned more towards him to look at him.

"I think it's because we haven't talked in five years. We just aren't as close as we used to be" Paul explained as he smiled at her "but we'll change that" he added and winked at her. Stephanie chuckled and shook her head.

"There is the Paul I know" laughed Stephanie

"What are you two doing?" Shane asked coming into the kitchen and opening the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water.

"Your sister was over here telling me how hot I am" Paul joked as Stephanie's eyes went wide.

"I was not!" Stephanie exclaimed feeling herself blush. She wondered if it was obvious that she still had some kind of feelings for him, she hoped not.

"Don't lie, I know I am."

"How about we get off of that topic before your ego is inflated even more" replied Shane with a laugh.

"Well I'm going to go figure out what to wear tonight" said Stephanie getting up and putting her dish in the sink and grabbing her wine to take with her.

"See you later" Paul said with a wink.

"Ewwww" Stephanie heard Shane as she made into the living room and started laughing at his reaction. Apparently he had took what Paul as perverted but Stephanie knew Paul didn't mean it that way. She knew he only seen her as Shane's little sister and that's all he would ever see her as.

Stephanie looked at her appearance in the mirror and seemed satisfied. She had decided to wear a red halter dress that showed off a little cleavage but not a lot and the dress ended about four inches above her knees.

"Stephanie are you ready?" Linda yelled from downstairs.

"I'll be done in just a minute" Stephanie yelled back as she applied her lipstick which was the same shade of red as her dress. She ran her fingers through the loose curls in her hair as she looked at herself pleased that she actually looked hot. She knew she was only going to a family dinner which wasn't a big deal but she had missed getting dressed up. Stephanie went to her closet and pulled out some black pumps and pulled them on and then went to her dresser and grabbed a pair of hoop earrings.

"Stephanie" called Vince with annoyance in his voice.

"Coming" called Stephanie opening her bedroom door and stepped outside and leaned against the side of the door frame as she put her earrings in. Stephanie noticed Paul coming out of the guestroom next to Shane's room looking really nice and sexy if she must say. He had a nice black button down shirt on and black slacks with his hair tied back. She watched as he headed towards her.

"Are you ready?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that. I don't see them bugging you" Stephanie joked as she jabbed him playfully on the chest.

"Hey I just came back up here to get my wallet" Paul replied with a smile as Stephanie finally got the last earring in her ear. She turned to start going downstairs where everyone was waiting impatiently when she suddenly was whirled back around by Paul. He pulled her close to him and put his hand on her hip and leaned in close to her ear.

"You look really good in that dress" he whispered seductively in her ear and just like that he let her go and headed down the stairs leaving her just standing there. Was he messing with her? Or was he flirting with her? Stephanie shot down the last option in her head and headed downstairs. She knew Paul was a big harmless flirt. He used to wink at her a lot five years ago and he hadn't meant anything then so why did she suddenly think it did now?

Halfway through the dinner everybody was chatting and having a good time. They had been seated at a booth where the seat wrapped around the table so Vince was on one end with Linda seated beside of him, then Shane, then Paul and then Stephanie was at the end opposite of Vince.

"Are you two going to start looking at apartments tomorrow?" Vince asked looking at Shane and Paul.

"Yeah hopefully we can find a decent one" Shane replied taking a bite of his food.

"Good it will be great to have you back closer to home" Vince replied as Stephanie smiled at the fact that Vince had missed Shane.

"It's great to be back here. I didn't realize how much I missed it here" said Paul taking a drink of water.

"Me either and I'm glad we are going to be able to do more stuff like this" Shane said as Stephanie took a drink of her water and sat it back down. She knew it was time to tell her family. She just hoped they were as accepting as they had been towards Shane returning home.

"So I have announcement" Stephanie announced as everyone looked over at her.

"Oh my God you're pregnant" said Shane and she swore she saw the color drain from his face.

"God no Shane" replied Stephanie wishing she could kick him as Shane sighed from relief. "I'm not just here for the summer. I've decided to take a year off from school."

There was nothing but silence until Vince dropped his fork on his plate trying to register what she had said.

"Stephanie do you think that is such a good idea?" Linda asked worriedly.

"I just need a year. When I'm at school I just feel like I'm not really there anymore and I just want to take a breather and have a life rather than worry about schoolwork all the time. I miss my family and friends and I've just felt so overwhelmed. I promise I'm not taking off just to go out and party, I just need time, please" Stephanie pleaded to her parents. Stephanie watched Vince and Linda as they looked at each other and Vince sighed.

"Okay I understand. You can stay at home until you're ready to go back" Vince said as he nodded his head.

"Really?" Stephanie, Shane and Linda said at the same time with surprise.

"I'm not going to force you to do something that your heart just isn't into right now. I made that mistake with Shane and I won't make it again" explained Vince as Stephanie got up from the table and went over to Vince and hugged him tightly as Vince chuckled.

"Thank you daddy!" Stephanie exclaimed as Vince hugged her back.

"Now remember you promised no partying."

"I won't daddy" replied Stephanie as she went back to her side of the booth and sat back down.

"I guess that means we all are going to be spending more time together" said Shane as Stephanie suddenly felt Paul's hand gently squeeze the inside of her thigh.

"I guess so" Paul replied looking over at Stephanie. She thought he would remove his hand but instead she felt his thumb start slowly rubbing the inside of her thigh.

"To family" Shane said raising his glass to toast as everyone else raised there glass. Paul's hand never left her thigh, her body felt like it was on fire. She kept wondering how much more she could take when suddenly she felt his hand starting to slide a little farther up a little bit at a time until...

"I've got to go the bathroom" announced Stephanie jumping up from the booth as they all looked at her with a strange expression except Paul who was quietly chuckling with a sly grin on his face. He had been doing that on purpose! What an ass thought Stephanie to herself.

"Well I hardly think anyone needed to know Stephanie" said Vince returning to eating his food. Stephanie threw Paul an evil eye before heading towards the bathroom.

When she made it inside the bathroom she went over to the mirror to check her makeup and wash her hands. She hadn't really had to go to the bathroom but she had to make some excuse to get out of there. Paul was obviously messing with her so somehow he knew she had some kind of feelings for him still, it was embarrassing. Stephanie decided she had waited long enough and decided to return to the booth, but when she exited the bathroom Shane was standing there apparently waiting for her.

"What is going on between you two?" Asked Shane as Stephanie came to where he was standing.

"Huh?" Stephanie asked confused.

"Don't play dumb Steph I'm not stupid. I seen the way he looked at you when you two seen each other again for the first time and then later he was flirting with you in the kitchen. Don't even make me bring up what happened at the table because honestly I might get sick" explained Shane as Stephanie looked at the floor embarrassed. She really had thought nobody else had noticed.

"He's just messing me with me for some reason. It's nothing" Stephanie shrugged feeling even more embarrassed.

"Why because you had a crush on him when you were fifteen?" Stephanie's eyes shot up to meet his and she opened her mouth to speak but Shane cut her off "How did I know? I'm sure that is what you were going to ask. It was completely obvious Stephanie and when he found out he asked me if I knew."

"Okay well that is completely embarrassing but now you get why he's messing with me. I was the kid who had a crush on him"

"I don't think that is what this is Stephanie. You were a kid then and he chalked it up to being cute so I don't know why he would tease you about something so long ago."

"I don't know but he just thinks of me as your little sister Shane. I mean the first thing he called me was little McMahon when he seen me again"

"Yeah well I've noticed he hasn't called you that since he basically ogled your body" said Shane shaking his head as if he were trying to get the image out of his head. "I've watched him with countless women Steph and the way he has been treating you today it just seems like he sees you as not so little anymore. Plus I don't even think he realizes you still have feelings for him."

"I don't have feelings for him anymore Shane."

"Who are you trying to convince here Stephanie? Just put an end to it" Shane replied as he headed back to the booth leaving Stephanie dumbfounded.

Later that night when they got home Vince and Linda headed to bed leaving Stephanie, Shane and Paul to themselves.

"I think I'm going to change out of this dress" Stephanie said heading to the stairs.

"Need any help?" Paul asked with a smirk.

"I think I can manage" Stephanie laughed as she headed upstairs. One thing for sure Paul was teasing her differently but she wasn't sure if it was because Shane was right or if it was just the simple fact she was older now. He had definitely been confusing tonight because one minute he had been teasing her by putting his hand on her thigh and then the next he acted like it never happened. Stephanie knew she had to try and forget about it because to him it probably meant nothing which to be honest kind of stung. She had realized tonight that her feelings for him were still as strong for him as they were five years ago and well it kind of sucked because she knew she would probably get hurt again. Stephanie sighed at that thought while she rummaged through her dresser trying to find something comfortable. She finally settled for some shorts and and a white tank top and quickly got out of the dress she had been wearing and practically threw the tank and shorts on when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in" Stephanie called throwing her dress into her hamper.

"Looks like your already done" Paul said leaning the door frame.

"Yeah, sad you missed it?" Stephanie teased with a smile.

"Oh you know it baby" he replied as she giggled. "I came to see if you wanted to watch a movie with me and Shane."

"How scary is the movie?" Stephanie automatically knew they would be watching some kind of horror movie.

"Not too scary."

"Okay I guess" she replied. She really had nothing better to do and she wasn't quiet ready for bed and honestly she really wanted to be around him. She felt like her fifteen year old self again wanting to follow him around like a lost puppy, she was pathetic. Stephanie followed Paul downstairs and she seen Shane coming from the kitchen with popcorn.

"How can you can seriously still be hungry?" Stephanie asked sitting down on couch as Paul sat down beside of her.

"I lost my appetite earlier and I didn't get to finish my meal" Shane replied referring to what had happened between her and Paul earlier that night. Stephanie grabbed a blanket that was sitting in the recliner next to her, she always loved cuddling up with a blanket when watching movies. Shane sat the bowl of popcorn in the middle of the coffee table in front of them.

"If anyone else wants some popcorn help yourself" Shane said and then went over and turn the lights off and sat down on the other side of Paul. Stephanie positioned herself on the couch sitting Indian style and reached over and grabbed some popcorn.

"You just asked Shane how he could still be hungry and now your eating again too" Paul said as she shrugged.

"I have to have popcorn with my movie no matter what" she replied eating her popcorn in the process.

"Shhh" hissed Shane at them, Stephanie made a face at him but he wasn't paying attention. Paul silently laughed and shook his head as he stretched out his arm on the couch behind her. Stephanie was watching everything play out on the screen when the first scary scene started. She watched as the scene built up to the part that meant to make you jump, preparing herself for it when suddenly she felt something poke her.

"Ahh.." Stephanie jumped and she could feel Paul's body shake beside her. He was trying not laugh out loud.

"Such a girl" Shane said shaking his head but keeping his eyes on the movie. Stephanie glared over at Paul knowing he had poked her to scare her. She slouched back on the couch and crossed her arms.

"I couldn't help it, it was too easy" Paul whispered into her ear as she turned her head and stuck her tongue out at him.

"I don't like you very much right now" Stephanie whispered back to him.

"Aww..you can't stay mad at me" he whispered back as he reached out and rubbed her thigh but this time he didn't leave his hand on her thigh like earlier that night. Stephanie shook her head at him and then turned her attention back to the movie and leaned over and grabbed more popcorn.

Halfway through the movie Stephanie went to grab some more popcorn and felt nothing but the bottom of the bowl.

"Shane..."

"What Stephanie?"

"All the popcorn is gone"

"Well go make more"

"But I'm comfortable" Stephanie pouted at him.

"Ugh fine give me the bowl but you have to do it next time" Shane replied as Stephanie handed him the bowl and he sat there for another minute watching the movie. Once the part he was watching was over he hurried to the kitchen so he could hurry up and not miss much of the movie.

Stephanie continued watching the movie when she felt Paul move closer to her.

"Coming to apologize?" Stephanie asked looking at him.

"For what?"

"For scaring me earlier" Stephanie replied while he starting laughing again. "You think its funny?"

Paul kept laughing when she reached over and tried tickling him but he just sat there unfazed.

"I'm not ticklish Steph but I do remember a certain someone being very ticklish" he responded with a grin.

"Don't you dare..." but she her sentence was interrupted as she felt him start tickling her and she started laughing. She tried to get away from him sliding herself around to where her head was now on the armchair and put her legs in front of him to block the attack. He stopped tickling her and rested his hand on one of her knees while she tried catching her breath. She laid there calming down while his fingers rubbed her knee.

"Are you good now?" He asked as she nodded and gazed down at his hand on her knee.

"Okay what did I miss?" Shane asked coming back into the living room with the popcorn. Stephanie felt Paul's hand immediately leave her knee.

"Not much" Paul replied as Stephanie stretched her legs out over Paul and cuddled back up underneath her blanket.

"Can you hand me some popcorn?" Stephanie asked Paul. Shane handed the bowl to Paul and he passed it over to her. She laid the bowl on her stomach and grabbed some popcorn out and returned her attention to the movie. She wondered if she had missed anything important. She was finding it hard to pay attention the movie now especially when she felt him lift the blanket up a little and put his hand back on her knee. She looked over at him but his attention was turned to the tv so she just turned her attention back to the movie. He started to slowly rub her knee again with his fingers back and forth then slowly over more to the side of her knee. She had no idea what game he was playing but if he thought she was going to jump up and leave again, he was wrong. She would play his little game and this time he would see who was chicken. Stephanie continued staring at the movie even though she wasn't paying attention. She was just going to pretend she wasn't paying attention him. She seen him out of the corner of her eye glance over at her but she kept pretending to watch the movie as she felt him slide his hand a little more up the inside of her leg. His fingers lightly rubbing her leg back and forth in one spot and then slowly move to the inside of her thigh. She felt her heart start to accelerate and her breathing became shallow, he had started sliding his hand from her thigh to where he had first started and back up. In the process of this he would go a little higher up each time. She finally looked away from the tv and their eyes connected, she noticed the smug smile on his face while his hand inched a little more further up meeting her shorts. She smirked at him thinking he wouldn't go any further but her smirk faded when she felt him slide his fingers a little ways underneath her shorts. She felt his thumb start rubbing her leg in a small circle. He wasn't very far off from her panties at this point and to be honest she was turned on. His fingers inched a little farther up her leg almost reaching her panties. She bit her lip trying not to let a moan escape. She felt disappointment when this time instead of going farther up she felt his hand slide down to the end of her shorts and then back up slowly back and forth. He was teasing and torturing her at the same time. At some point of this she hadn't realized she had closed her eyes reveling in what was going on. She opened her eyes and looked at him, she noticed he didn't have a smile or smirk on his face. The expression on his face looked like complete desire, she felt a flutter in her chest at the thought that he might actually want her. Her thoughts were distracted when she felt him reach the edge of her panties and her breath hitched in her throat as his hand started moving more to the center of her panties.

"Seriously!" Shane exclaimed as Paul's hand froze and she licked and her lips and tried to calm her breathing. She hadn't even realized that she had started breathing faster. "That ending was bullshit!" Stephanie looked over at Shane as he threw his hands up in the air still staring at the tv. She felt Paul slowly remove his hand from underneath her shorts. They had completely forgotten Shane sitting beside of them because they had been in their own little world.

"What did you think?" Asked Shane looking over at Paul.

"I agree it was bullshit" replied Paul clearly uncomfortable.

"Stephanie you barely even ate any of the popcorn" said Shane as Stephanie looked down realizing she was still holding the popcorn.

"I guess I got wrapped up in the movie" Stephanie lied sitting up on the couch and sitting the bowl on the coffee table. Shane looked annoyed that he basically made the popcorn for nothing.

"I guess I'm going to start getting ready for bed" said Shane standing up from the couch and started stretching.

"Me too. We have to start looking at apartments tomorrow" Paul said getting up from the couch.

"Well if you guys are going to bed then I might as well go to" Stephanie replied getting up from the couch and started heading up the stairs thinking about what just had happened.

"Stephanie are you going to throw the popcorn away?" Shane asked but Stephanie wasn't paying attention as she made it upstairs and went to her room. Stephanie sat down on the end of her bed still trying to regain her composure

"Hey" said Paul coming into her room.

"Hey" replied Stephanie with a smile.

"I uh...just wanted to say goodnight"

"Oh..goodnight" Stephanie replied as he bent down and kissed her on the cheek and left leaving Stephanie even more confused.

Stephanie fell back on the bed and groaned. She was so frustrated and now in more ways than one.


	2. Chapter 2

Stephanie woke up the next morning feeling happier than she had in a very long time. She got up from her bed over to her dresser and combed her hair to put it up into a ponytail. After she was done she decided it was time for breakfast feeling her stomach rumble. She headed downstairs to the kitchen grabbing a bowl and a box of Honey Nut Cheerios.

"Good morning" Stephanie greeted her family with a smile. They just stared at her as if she had grew an extra head over night.

"Why are you in such a good mood?" She heard Shane ask as she sat down with her bowl of cereal.

"It's just a good day" Stephanie shrugged at her brother who just looked suspiciously at her.

"It hasn't really even started"

"Well some people are optimistic Shane"

"Yeah well not you" replied Shane looking at his cellphone but he didn't say anymore on the subject.

"What are you doing?" Stephanie asked eyeing Shane's cellphone.

"I'm looking at listings in the area for available apartments"

"How many have you found?"

"Not many too be honest but hopefully we can go look at some of them today"

"Where is Paul?" Stephanie tried acting nonchalant about it while she continued to eat her breakfast.

"He's in the shower" Stephanie just nodded her head at Shane but he was still staring at his phone not even noticing.

Stephanie continued with her breakfast thinking about what had happened between her and Paul last night. She wondered what today would be like. Would it be awkward between them, or would he act like it never happened? Stephanie was having trouble keeping up with it all, that was for sure. She couldn't deny the fact that she had liked what happened last night. She really did like Paul but his feeling towards her were confusing at the moment. The only thing she knew for sure now was he didn't think of her the way he used to because he would never had been like that towards her five years ago. Stephanie was also confused about what Shane had said about whatever was going on between them to end it. Did he not want her with Paul?

"I'm going to call these listings I found and see if we can look at them" Shane said breaking her thoughts as she looked over to where Shane was looking to find Paul standing in the kitchen door way.

"Okay. I'm going to grab something to eat so just let me know what you found out" Paul replied coming more into the kitchen to grab a bowl. Stephanie watched as he poured some cereal and milk and came to sit beside of her. He looked over at her and gave her a small smile while she continued eating her breakfast. It was awkward seeing him this morning but hopefully it would dissipate through the day. Stephanie sat looking into her bowl of cereal thinking of something to say but she didn't have to be the first one to speak apparently as she heard Paul clear his throat as if he were going to be the first to break the awkwardness.

"How are you this morning?"

"Good"

"Listen I want to apologize for last night-"

"It's fine" Stephanie replied quickly feeling a blush rise to her cheeks. This was definitely not the conversation she wanted to have right now especially when Shane could walk back into the kitchen and hear them.

"No it's not I took that a little too far last night and for that I am sorry"

"Let's just forget about it okay" Stephanie replied feeling the good mood she was in slip into a sour mood. She looked at her food not really interested in eating it anymore.

"I hope you're not mad at me"

"No not at all" Stephanie replied turning to him faking a smile. She got up from her seat taking her bowl and emptying into the trash.

"Steph-"

"Okay so I was able to get a hold of some of the people for the listings so we can go look at those today" Shane announced coming back into the kitchen. Paul continued to look at Stephanie for a moment. It looked like to her he wanted to say more but he just turned his attention to Shane instead.

"I'm going to finish up my breakfast and then I guess we will head out" Paul replied turning his attention back to his breakfast.

"Well I guess I'll talk to you guys later, good luck" Stephanie said heading out of the kitchen. It didn't feel like there was anything else to say. At this point she just wanted to go back to her room and some how start the day back over. She was honestly hoping that Paul would confess his feelings for her but it sounded like if anything he was just took his teasing too far and completely regretted it.

"Stephanie there you are" Stephanie had made it to the stairs but turned around at the sound of her mothers voice.

"Did you need something mom?"

"You remember my friend Tamara right?"

"Yeah what about her?"

"She's coming over today and well after she found out you were back home her daughter Melanie wanted to come and catch up with you"

"Mom you know I hate Melanie" Stephanie replied disgusted at even the mention of her name. Melanie and Stephanie used to be friends back in high school until one day Melanie decided she was too cool for Stephanie. She suddenly started rumors about Stephanie and started dating her crush and made Stephanie's time in high school pure hell. Stephanie still to this day didn't understand what had happened between them but after everything that happened she definitely hated her.

"Stephanie don't be so dramatic you two used to be so close"

"Until she became a backstabbing bitch" Stephanie muttered under her breath. Stephanie honestly even wondered why she wanted to see her.

"You two haven't talked in almost three years maybe things have changed"

"Highly doubt it mom"

"Could you just please talk to her? She has already decided to come"

"I'm going to be busy" Stephanie lied desperately trying to get out of it but then she heard the doorbell and watched as her mother smile. It was apparently too late, they were already here.

Stephanie watched Linda head down the hall to answer the door. She looked back at the stairs wondering if she could possibly escape up them quickly.

"Hello Tamara, Melanie. Come on in" Linda said as Stephanie sighed and went over to the couch to sit down. She was sure she could get through this and it would be easier to live down then Linda telling her how she embarrassed her by running off.

"Hello Stephanie" Melanie greeted her sweetly. Stephanie could tell that it was completely fake but she turned around on the couch to face her. Melanie was about 5'7 with long golden blonde hair, baby blue eyes, and fair skin. She was honestly very pretty even though Stephanie hated to admit it.

"Hello Melanie" Stephanie replied back in her own sweet fake voice along with a fake smile.

"It's been so long since we seen each other" Melanie replied while Stephanie watched her come over to the couch and sit down on the other end of the couch leaving a space between them.

"Not long enough" Stephanie replied through clenched teeth crossing her arms against her chest. Melanie apparently pretended not to hear her as she just smiled over at Stephanie.

"My mom was telling me on the way over how Linda told her that you were taking a year off from school. Was it too much pressure?"

"No I wanted to take a breather and spend time with my family"

"Awww how sweet, you were home sick" Melanie replied as Stephanie rolled her eyes because she knew she was trying to make fun of her subtly, she wasn't dumb. Stephanie opened her mouth to insult her but she heard her mother and Tamara coming into the living room.

"It's nice to see Melanie again she hasn't been here in so long" Stephanie heard her mother say as Melanie looked at Linda and smiled. Stephanie felt annoyed and she had to get out of there for even just for a minute so she got up and headed to the kitchen. She wondered if she could sneak a little bit of wine because she knew Linda wouldn't let her drink while there was company. When Stephanie entered the kitchen she seen that Shane and Paul were still there and they were looking at something on Shane's cellphone. It hadn't been a minute since Stephanie had arrived in the kitchen when she heard the sound of high heels behind her headed that way. Stephanie groaned inwardly just wanting to catch a break but no such luck.

"Stephanie it's rude to leave while someone is trying to talk to you" Melanie said coming up behind her.

"Oh I didn't know anyone else was in here" Melanie replied and Stephanie turned around to face her only to see Melanie looking over in the direction of Paul and Shane.

"Hi Melanie" Shane answered in an uninterested tone looking at her once and then going back to his cellphone.

"Who is your friend?" Melanie asked while taking a strand of her blonde hair and started twirling it around her finger.

"I'm Paul" Paul answered shooting her smile. Stephanie begin to feel her blood boil at this point as Melanie made her way over to where he was sitting.

"I'm Melanie"

"I think he already caught that" Stephanie replied going over to the cabinet and grabbing a wine glass. At this point she didn't care if Linda got pissed at her for drinking or not, she needed this drink.

"Are you from around here?" Melanie asked Paul ignoring Stephanie.

Stephanie was glad she had left her alone but she was pissed that Melanie was trying to now dig her claws into Paul, another one of her crushes. Stephanie poured the wine and started drinking it while Melanie continued to ignore her, her eyes were only on Paul. Paul was chatting back with her but Stephanie pretty much tuned out the conversation watching Melanie pretty much drool all over him. She never wanted to hit somebody so much in her life but Paul wasn't hers to tell Melanie to back off. Stephanie watched as Melanie laid her hand on Paul's bicep but Paul removed it as quickly as she had put it there. Stephanie couldn't help but smile as he refused Melanie's advances.

"We better get going Shane" Paul said looking uncomfortable. He looked like he was going to flee at any moment with or without Shane.

"Where do you want to start" Shane asked getting up from his seat.

"Let's start with the closest to us"

"Bye Paul" Melanie called as Shane and Paul left the kitchen. Stephanie stood there smiling to herself until she realized Melanie's gaze was now back to her. Melanie's fake smile she had towards Stephanie earlier was now gone.

"So what are you really doing here?" Stephanie asked narrowing her eyes at Melanie.

"Does Paul have a girlfriend?" Melanie asked ignoring her question.

"Not that I know of but I think he has his eye on someone" Stephanie flushed at the thought of him liking her. She turned around quickly putting her empty glass in the sink before Melanie could see her blushing.

"Wait. You like him don't you?"

"What?" Stephanie asked turning back around to look at her. Melanie had the fake smiled plastered to her face again which wasn't good.

"You heard me"

"No I don't"

"Hmm... Well I guess you won't mind if I ask him out?" Melanie asked with a smirk. Stephanie knew Melanie was doing this on purpose. This was how it had been since high school and it didn't matter what Stephanie's answer was because she knew Melanie would ask him out anyway.

"No I don't mind at all"

"Good. Maybe I'll be coming over more often. Especially since we're putting the past behind us and we have a lot of catching up to do" Melanie replied as she stood up from her seat. "I guess I'll see you back in the living room."

Stephanie watched her walk back to the living room. Stephanie turned around grabbing another glass for some more wine. She really hoped to God she wouldn't be seeing her more but knowing Melanie she probably would, especially since she wanted Paul, and even more now since she knew Stephanie liked him. Stephanie just hoped that Paul wouldn't give her the time of day just like earlier. Stephanie sighed as she realized what a shitty day it had ended up being.


	3. Chapter 3

Later that week Stephanie hadn't seen much of Paul or Shane, they had found an apartment and had been moving their stuff in. Stephanie also hadn't seen or heard from Melanie either which was a relief. Now she was sitting outside of a restaurant with her best friend Allie from high school that she decided to catch up with.

"I can't believe that skank" Allie said talking about Melanie.

"She would never tell me why she was there either. I tried multiple times but she ignored me"

"Just let me know if she keeps giving you problems and I'll kick her ass" Allie replied tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder.

"I wish I would've called you sooner" Stephanie chuckled at Allie's response.

"I've hated that girl for the longest time after she did all that shit to you"

"Yeah I know. I'm so grateful to have you" Stephanie smiled at her.

"Let's not get all mushy, I love you too though"

"I really hope I don't see her again but after she found out that I liked Paul she acted like she was on a mission to get him"

"If that man has any brain cells whatsoever he won't fall for it"

"I hope you're right. I just don't even know if he likes me"

"I think he likes you from what you have said but you should be careful cause he may just be looking for a hook up"

"That's what I'm afraid of. Enough about me, how are things with you?" Stephanie asked after taking a drink of her lemonade.

"Daniel proposed to me" Allie replied with a shrug. Daniel and Allie had been dating since senior year of high school, Stephanie could tell Allie loved him but she wasn't much on expressing feelings well, except for anger it seemed.

"Why aren't you happy about it?"

"I didn't say yes. I told him I needed to think about it"

"Do you not want to get married to him?"

"I have no idea. I just feel like we're too young and for the last couple of months all we have been doing is fighting. He's been annoying me so much that I'm not sure if we will even last"

"You two seemed to be doing so good when we talked last"

"We were and then he started hating my new waitress job because guys flirt with me. I told him that he has nothing to worry about but he's such a jealous guy"

"Hopefully you two can work it out but first Allie you really need to express how you feel to him"

"I'm going to talk to him soon but I'm not sure how it's going to turn out"

"You know I'll be here for you"

"I know" Allie replied with a smile. "Isn't that your man over there?" Allie pointed as Stephanie looked to find Paul a couple of blocks down. He was coming out of a building holding a white bag.

"Yeah that's him"

"He's just a yummy in person as in the pictures you showed me"

"Allie!"

"Don't worry I'm not Melanie. You know I would never try anything with him but he's still nice to look at" Stephanie laughed turning back around to Allie but her dark brown eyes were still focused on Paul. Stephanie tried snapping her fingers in front of her face when Allie's jaw dropped.

"Okay you can stop now" Stephanie said but Allie's face suddenly had a look of pure anger. Stephanie turned back around to see what had caused the sudden change when her eyes landed on Melanie. It looked like she was twirling a strand of her hair which was a dead give away that she was flirting with him, of course.

"I'm going to kick her ass" Allie said in a harsh tone.

"Allie relax. I hate her too but you can't go to jail over her" Stephanie replied still watching them as she heard Allie sigh frustrated.

"I don't get what guys see in her, yeah she's pretty but her personality is shit"

"Does it look like Paul is flirting with her?" Stephanie asked turning her head to look back at Allie.

"It's hard to tell but he is smiling at her now" Allie replied as Stephanie jerked her head back in their direction feeling her heart drop to her stomach at the sight. The last time Melanie had tried talking to Paul he seemed like he wanted to be anywhere but near her and now he was talking and smiling at her. Stephanie watched as Melanie waved at him and walked away.

"I don't understand what just happened" Stephanie said turning back around to face Allie.

"I don't know either but hopefully it's not as bad as we are thinking"

"Anything that has to do with Melanie is bad"

"I can't argue with you there"

"How can I compete with her when Paul has seen me as nothing more than Shane's little sister for years?"

"You are way better than her. I'm not just saying because you're my best friend and if Paul can't see that he's an idiot and you deserve better"

"I think that is the sweetest thing I've ever heard come out of your mouth"

"It's true but don't expect me to go around being all mushy now"

"I don't think that would ever happen" Stephanie laughed while Allie rolled her eyes then started laughing too.

After awhile of talking, Stephanie and Allie said their goodbyes and Stephanie headed home. Paul and Melanie was still on her mind which had soured her mood but she had tried not to let it get in the way of her and Allie hanging out. But now that she was alone her mood had quickly flipped again. Stephanie was laying on her bed with music blasting in her ears trying to put herself in a better mood when she saw her bedroom door slowly opening. She paused the music on her phone and took her headphones out as Paul appeared in her door way.

"Hey" Paul greeted her with a smile.

"Hey"

"So why are you hiding up here?"

"Just relaxing and listening to music"

"Well I wanted to invite you to this thing me and Shane are having at our new apartment tonight" Paul said coming over and sitting on the bed beside of her.

"A thing?" Stephanie asked confused at what he meant.

"Well it's not really a party but we are having a couple of our closest friends over to hang out since we moved back in town and haven't seen anyone in awhile"

"Oh so you guys have everything moved in?" Stephanie asked feeling disappointed she wouldn't see him as much as she did now.

"Yeah we will be staying there starting tonight. So do you want to come?"

"I guess" Stephanie said and couldn't help but smile.

"I've been so busy I feel like I haven't seen you around much" Paul said stretching out beside of her.

"We really haven't seen each other" Stephanie replied rolling on her side facing him.

"I still feel bad about movie night Steph-" Stephanie covered his mouth with her hand cutting him off as she shook her head.

"We've already discussed this Paul, there's nothing to left to say about it" Stephanie replied removing her hand from his mouth.

"I just want you to know that I value our friendship and I don't want to ever lose that" Paul said making Stephanie feel happy and sad at the same time. She was happy he cared about her that much but sad that it was in a friend way.

"Thanks Paul but we are good, okay?"

"Okay" Paul replied putting his arms behind his head propping himself up a little.

"Steph-" Stephanie heard her mother's voice as Linda appeared in the doorway. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't know you two were in here talking"

"It's fine mom" Stephanie said sitting up in her bed.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to join your father and I for dinner tonight"

"Actually I was going to go to Shane and Paul's and hang out with them"

"Well can't you do that after dinner?" Linda asked as Stephanie looked at Paul for an answer but he just shrugged.

"I guess I'll go to dinner with you and daddy if you can drop me off at Paul and Shane's after"

"We can do that. We will be leaving here at seven. I'll leave you two alone now" Linda said with a smile.

"Thanks for helping" Stephanie said looking over at Paul.

"What was I supposed to say?"

"You could of made up something"

"Why didn't you?"

"She would of known I was lying"

"You're right, you suck at lying" Paul laughed as Stephanie playfully smacked him on the chest. Then she laid her head on his chest as she stretched back out on the bed. She felt him shift underneath her for a moment before she felt his hand rest on the small of her back.

"What time does this thing start at your place?"

"About six but it's probably going to last awhile. You won't miss much"

"Steph?"

"Yeah"

"You know earlier what I said about our friendship-"

"Paul-"

"Will you let me finish?"

"Paul" Stephanie heard Shane call from downstairs.

"What is up with the interruptions" Stephanie heard Paul mutter as she seen Shane entering her room.

"What are you two doing?" Shane asked with a disapproving look.

"Just laying here talking, what do you need?" Paul asked looking at him.

"I was coming to tell you we need to go pick up some stuff for tonight"

"Okay give me a minute"

"We need to get going now" Shane replied as Paul sighed.

"I guess I'll talk to you later tonight then Steph" Paul said as Stephanie rolled off of his chest so he could get up.

"Okay I'll see you later" Stephanie replied as Shane shook his head at her annoyed. She really had no idea what his problem was but he needed to back off.

Stephanie watched them leave her room wondering what Paul was going to say to her as she got up from the bed and closed her door. Hopefully she would find out later but for now she had to start getting ready for dinner with her parents.

* * *

Later that evening Stephanie was sitting with her parents at dinner just listening to Vince and Linda talk. She wasn't sure why her mom even wanted her to come. They had barely said anything to her.

"Stephanie whats wrong? You've hardly ate any of your food" Linda said while Stephanie just shrugged.

"I ate a little earlier with Allie today so I'm not very hungry"

"How is Allie? I haven't seen her in a long time"

"She's good"

"Maybe you should invite Melanie with you guys the next time" Linda replied as Stephanie rolled her eyes.

"Mom, Allie can't stand Melanie either so I'm not sure that would be a good idea"

"What happened between you guys? You used to go everywhere together"

"That was a long time ago when Melanie actually used to be human" Stephanie replied as Linda gave her a disapproving look.

"That is not a nice Stephanie. Melanie is a great girl, you should give her a chance. She really wants to be friends again"

"So Stephanie what do you plan to do for the year?" Vince asked changing the subject. Stephanie was so thankful Vince had changed the subject.

"I was actually thinking of applying for a part time job to keep myself occupied and so I could support myself"

"I think that is great idea" Vince replied nodding his head.

"Tamara" Linda said smiling as Stephanie turned around to see Melanie's mother and father walking towards them. Stephanie now understood why her mother wanted her to come along.

"Hi Linda, Vince and Stephanie" Tamara said coming over to their table.

"Where is Melanie?" Linda asked as Stephanie looked behind them feeling relieved she didn't see her.

"She said she made another commitment and couldn't make it"

"That's too bad isn't it Stephanie?"

"Yeah real bummer" Stephanie replied with the nicest smile she could manage. For the rest of the dinner Stephanie kept quiet and off into her own little world while her parents ignored her. Next time she was making sure she didn't end up in something like this again. She had no idea what was up with her family putting their nose in her business but she was growing tired of it fast.

"Stephanie" Vince said snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Sorry dad"

"Why don't you take the car and go on"

"What about you and mom?"

"We will get a cab. Your mother was counting on Melanie to be here and she isn't. I know you must be bored, I told your mother this wasn't a good idea" Stephanie couldn't help but smile, at least she had someone on her side.

"Thanks dad" Stephanie replied taking the car keys from her dad.

"Where are you going?" Linda asked as Stephanie stood up from her chair.

"I told her she could leave"

"But-"

"Linda, just let her go"

"Thanks daddy" Stephanie said giving him a kiss on the cheek. She then turned and left the restaurant not wasting another minute for her mother to try and convince her to stay.

Stephanie climbed into the car and started her way to Shane and Paul's apartment. It took her about fifteen minutes to get there. Once she had parked she got out and made her way into the building and to the elevator pressing the number of their floor. After she the elevator reached its destination she walked down the hall and knocked on the door. It only took a couple of seconds before it was opened. Stephanie was expecting Shane or Paul to answer but instead it was some tall guy with dark hair and blue eye and he reeked of alcohol.

"Well hello" he said eyeing her up and down.

"Is Shane or Paul here?" Stephanie asked feeling uncomfortable in his presence.

"Yeah"

"Well can I get through"

"For a price" he slurred with a mischievous grin.

"And that would be?" Stephanie asked rolling her eyes annoyed.

"Show me your boobs" he replied as Stephanie narrowed her eyes at him seriously thinking about kicking him between the legs.

"Dan that's my sister! Move your ass" Shane said coming up behind him.

"Oh sorry I didn't know. Wow Stephanie you look really different" Dan said still eyeing her as Stephanie pushed past him into the apartment.

"That's it you're cut off from drinking" Stephanie heard Shane tell Dan as she moved away from him as far as she could get.

As Stephanie got farther into the apartment she finally seen Paul standing in the kitchen. It looked like he was laughing at something when the blonde in front of him caught her attention. The blonde didn't even have to turn around for her to know it was Melanie, Stephanie felt her blood boil. How dare he invite the one person she hated most. Stephanie turned away from them spotting Shane again.

"Shane" Stephanie called making her way towards him.

"What?"

"What is Melanie doing here?" Stephanie asked as Shane rolled his eyes at her name.

"Paul invited her when he seen her out today"

"But..why?"

"I don't know, he's probably hoping to get lucky" Shane said shrugging his shoulders "So I have to run out real quick will you be okay?"

"Yeah I'll be fine" Stephanie replied feeling hurt over Paul and Melanie.

"Just stay away from Dan" Shane said as he grabbed his car keys. Stephanie nodded her head and made her way over to the couch to sit down but before she made it she heard a voice behind her.

"Hey, Stephanie right?" Stephanie turned around to see a blonde haired guy.

"Yeah"

"I'm Zach. I don't know if you remember me" he said as she stared at him trying to remember him.

"I used to hang out with Shane and Paul and I remember you being with them a lot"

"Yeah I remember, I'm sorry it's been a long time" Stephanie smiled at him thankful to see a familiar face.

"It's okay. You look different" Zach replied but not in the creepy way that Dan had earlier.

"You do too"

"So can I get you a beer?" Zach asked as Stephanie looked back to the kitchen to see Paul still talking with Melanie.

"I would love one" She would definitely need one to keep her from scratching Melanie's eyes out.

"I'll be right back" Zach replied as Stephanie found a spot on the couch and sat down. It didn't even seem like it had been a minute when Zach returned.

"Thanks" Stephanie said taking the beer from him.

"No problem. So what brings you here tonight?" He asked sitting down beside of her.

"Paul invited me but he seems occupied"

"Oh with the blonde"

"Yeah" Stephanie replied taking a drink.

"She's been here for almost an hour and I couldn't stand listening to her anymore"

"She can get on your nerves"

"Do you know her?"

"Yeah and I can't stand her" Stephanie replied as Zach nodded his head in agreement.

"I don't know her like you do but I want to stay away from her. I can't stand girls that act the way she has been acting tonight"

"Then we have something in common" Stephanie replied smiling at him.

"You seem really cool Steph"

"Thanks, you too. The first guy I met when I got here was a major creep"

"I'm going to guess Dan" Zach replied taking a drink of his beer.

"How did you know?"

"He's always like that when he gets drunk. I told Shane not to invite him"

"My brother should of listened to you" Stephanie replied sitting her drink down on the table beside of her.

"I bet he will next time" Zach replied with a chuckle.

"You seem so different from the last time I seen you. I remember you being more the life of the party, with a drink in your hand at all times drunk off your ass"

"I had to get more serious with my life after my dad passed"

"Oh I'm so sorry"

"It was a couple of years ago but it made me pull myself together to be there for my mom and little sister"

"Wow" Stephanie replied not knowing what else to say at the moment.

"Anyway how has your life been since I seen you last?"

"It's been good. I was in college but I decided to take a breather"

"How did your family react considering with what happened with Shane?"

"They were pretty cool with it actually" Stephanie replied as a cellphone started ringing.

"That's me, I've got to take this" Zach said getting up from the couch and heading out the door probably to get away from the noise. Stephanie sighed looking back to the kitchen but she couldn't see Paul but she saw Dan start heading her way so she got up quickly and headed for Shane's bedroom. She didn't want anything to do with Dan, plus she just needed away from everyone for a moment.

Stephanie closed the bedroom door hoping Dan wouldn't come back here. She sat down on the bed and just stared at the blank wall in front of her. She felt miserable, yeah Zach was a really nice guy but he wasn't the one she was here for. She just was giving up hope on whatever she wanted with Paul. It seemed like he didn't want the same thing and she wasn't going to waste her time again pining away on him. Stephanie thoughts were interrupted as she heard the doorknob turn and the door creak from starting to open. Her heart felt like it was in her throat, she was afraid it was Dan and she was here alone. She felt herself relax as she seen it was Paul. He came in and closed the door behind him.

"Hey what are you doing in here?" He asked coming closer to her.

"I came to Shane's room to try and escape creepy Dan"

"Well you're in the wrong room" Paul chuckled leaning on the dresser in front of Stephanie.

"Oh this is your room. I didn't know"

"It's okay. I don't care. So what did Dan do?" Paul asked crossing his arms against his chest.

"When I got here he told me I needed to pay a price to get through and told me the price was showing him my boobs"

"What?" Paul asked looking pissed off.

"I didn't do it but Shane told me to stay away from him so here I am" Stephanie shrugged looking down at her hands in her lap.

"Remind me to kick his ass later"

"You don't need to do that Paul. I'm a big girl, I can handle him as long as he doesn't try to force himself on me"

"That will never happen, I will make sure of it"

"I appreciate it Paul. You're a great friend" Stephanie said giving him a weak smile.

"So what were you and Zach talking about?" Stephanie was surprised he had even seen her and Zach.

"We were just talking about life. Why?"

"He just looked like he was flirting with you and I was curious"

"Sounds like someone is jealous" Stephanie joked but Paul just stood there staring at her. She wondered if she went to far in saying that.

"Steph I need to know if you still have feelings for me" Paul said as Stephanie shut her eyes. She did not want to have this conversation again. It felt like that night all over again but what was she supposed to do? She could feel her heart beating against her chest fast, trying to brace herself for what she knew was about to come.

"Why does it matter?" Stephanie asked quietly opening her eyes and looking down at the floor.

"It matters to me. I need to know" Paul replied softly.

"Yeah I do Paul but don't worry it won't ruin our friendship" Stephanie replied looking at him before shutting her eyes to try not to cry when suddenly she felt his lips on hers. She was stunned for a moment before returning his kiss and putting her arms around his neck pulling him closer to her.


	4. Chapter 4

He pulled her closer, his hand entangled in her hair while his other hand rested on the small of her back. She was consumed in the touch of his soft lips against hers, her heart was beating fast and every inch of her felt like it was on fire. She pushed her body closer to him never wanting the kiss to end. It was everything she had ever wanted but all too soon she felt his lips leave hers leaving her breathless and wanting more. She opened her eyes looking directly into his as she licked her her lips trying to form words in her head but her mind felt blank. She felt him tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and then his fingers gently grazed the side of her face.

"Say something Steph" he whispered as she felt his fingers leave her face.

"I-I'm not sure" she fumbled over her words.

"Did you not want me to kiss you?"

"Of course I did" she reassured him. She definitely didn't want him to regret it and apologize. "I just didn't know you felt the same way"

"I have for awhile" he confessed making her feel smile. He actually liked her but that also raised another question that she didn't want to think about but she needed to know.

"Then why did you invite Melanie?" Stephanie asked nervously biting her bottom lip.

"Who?" She wasn't sure if he was being serious or pretending he didn't know who she was talking about.

"The blonde in the kitchen that you've been talking to all night. You invited her" Stephanie replied trying to keep the jealous tone out of her voice.

"Oh right that's her name. I ran into her when I was getting food and she heard me talking to Shane about tonight. I told her it was only for close friends and she asked me if you were going to be here. She started saying after that how you two were best friends or something so I invited her so maybe you would have a friend here since you don't really know mine and Shane's friends"

"She is not my best friend" Stephanie replied feeling her blood boil "She is nowhere near a friend"

"I kind of put that together once you came in and never came to talk to her and she didn't make the attempt to come over to talk to you"

"Why did you spend all that time talking to her?"

"I haven't been able to get away from her all night. Everywhere I went she followed. I finally found my escape when she went to the bathroom. I wouldn't of invited her if I knew you two weren't even friends or that you would spend most of your time talking to Zach" Paul shrugged, she was starting to wonder if he really was jealous but above all else she was ecstatic to know he could care less about Melanie.

"Do you have a problem with Zach?" Stephanie asked him curious if there was some other reason besides jealousy.

"No, he's a good friend" Paul answered and she couldn't help but smile at the thought that he was jealous.

"What?"

"Nothing" Stephanie replied shaking her head.

"Why are you smiling then?"

"No reason" Stephanie replied as she remembered earlier in the day when Paul was trying to tell her something before Shane interrupted. "What were you going to say earlier today in my room?"

"Oh. I was trying to tell you that I value our friendship and I never want to lose it but I care for you as more than a friend. I don't want to lose you as a friend if something happened between us"

"So where does this leave us?" Stephanie asked nervously.

"I'm not sure. I'm afraid of something going wrong and losing you and Shane is my best friend and I'm not sure how he is going to feel about this. I guess I need to talk to him" Paul explained while Stephanie nodded her head. She wasn't sure how this was going to go now. Shane had made it clear that he wanted her to end whatever was going on between them but she wasn't going to give up hope now that she knew Paul liked her. Maybe if Paul talked to Shane it might come out differently, or at least she hoped.

"Okay" Stephanie replied looking at down at her hands, failing at keeping the disappointment out of her voice. She felt Paul's fingers under her chin tilting her head back up to look at him.

"Hey. We'll figure it out" He leaned over kissing her gently on the lips again. Stephanie savored the moment not quite sure if she would get the chance to kiss him again tonight.

"We should probably head back out there" Stephanie said standing up from the bed. She knew Shane would probably be back and looking for her to make sure creepy Dan wasn't bothering her.

"Just don't leave me alone with Melanie" Paul pleaded as they walked to the door.

"I won't" Stephanie replied with a smile. She couldn't wait to see Melanie's face when Paul would be with her for the rest of the night. Stephanie opened the door and walked out back to the living room with Paul behind her as soon as they made it there she locked eyes with Shane, and he didn't look too happy. He stared at her for a moment before returning his attention back his conversation he was having with one of his friends. She was surprised he just let it go that easier or at least she hoped he had let it go.

"Lets get something to drink" Paul said as she nodded her head in agreement, she was feeling a little parched.

They headed to the kitchen and no to surprise to Stephanie found Melanie was still in there except now she was talking to another one of Shane and Paul's friends. She turned to Stephanie as soon as she seen her abandoning her conversation with the dark haired guy she had been talking to.

"Stephanie I wondered when I would see you" Melanie said with a disgusted tone but a moment later she perked up quickly changing her attitude. "Paul I was wondering where you went." Stephanie rolled her eyes.

"I went to find Steph" Paul replied going over to the fridge.

"Oh" Melanie said her face dropping into a frown. Stephanie bit her lip to keep from smiling at her apparent dissatisfaction. Paul came back over and handed her one of the beers he grabbed the fridge.

"Shit!" Stephanie heard a voice shout in the next room as something shattered in the next room.

"You've got to be kidding me" Paul groaned "I'll be right back" He kissed her cheek probably to send a message to Melanie and walked into the next room. She watched him until he was out of view and then turned back to Melanie who had a fake smile plastered to her face.

"So you and Paul huh?" Melanie asked. She might have a smile on her face but her voice was anything but nice.

"I told you he had his eye on someone" Stephanie replied with a smile of her own.

"Oh well" Melanie shrugged "He might for now but we both know that it can change, remember Tyler?"

Stephanie's smile vanished from her face remembering Tyler her crush from high school that Melanie stole.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Stephanie asked narrowing her eyes.

"If I remember correctly, he liked you too and then I started talking to him. Things quickly changed after that didn't they?"

"I didn't know he liked me"

"I did" Melanie replied with a smirk. Stephanie wanted to smack the smirk off of her face but luckily Paul had walked back into the kitchen.

"Sorry about that" Paul said slipping his arm around her waist.

"Well I better get going. I have a lot of things to do" Melanie said looking at Stephanie as if it pertained something to do with her. "Thanks for inviting me Paul" Melanie rubbed her hand on his bicep before exiting the kitchen.

"Wow" Paul said shaking his head and then taking a drink of his beer.

"She's doing it on purpose"

"Why?"

"It's a long story" Stephanie sighed not wanting to talk about her. "What happened in the living room?"

"Dan broke the glass in the coffee table"

"Wow"

"He's just way too drunk. Shane sent him to his room to sleep it off a little"

"Too bad we can't go back to your room" Stephanie replied not feeling in the mood to socialize after her conversation with Melanie. Stephanie felt Paul remove his arm from her waist as he came over to stand in front of her.

"Well we could make the night a lot more interesting in there" Paul said pulling her up against him. She couldn't help but blush.

"This was a bad idea" Paul moved quickly away from her as soon as they heard Shane's voice.

"I think inviting Dan was the bad idea" Paul said leaning against the kitchen counter.

"He made such a mess. We are going have so much shit to clean up" Shane said going over to the fridge and opening it.

"I don't think we should invite him when there is going to be alcohol. Especially after what he said to Stephanie"

"I agree. So what have you two been doing?" Shane asked opening his beer.

"Nothing really. Stephanie was saving me from Melanie"

"But you're the one who invited her"

"I thought her and Stephanie was friends" Paul replied as Shane shrugged and then took a drink of his beer.

"You probably shouldn't be drinking Stephanie" Shane said to her as she looked at her beer forgetting she had even been holding it.

"Lighten up Shane. I'm not getting drunk"

"Fine but if mom and dad smell the alcohol on you it's your problem" Shane replied as she sat down her beer on the counter. He did have a point. "Zach was looking for you earlier before he had to go. I think he might like you"

"What makes you say that?"

"Because he asked me if you were seeing anyone and if I would be okay with him asking you on a date" Stephanie looked over at Paul to see his reaction but he was looking down with his arms crossed.

"And?" Stephanie asked turning her attention back to Shane curious about how Shane would feel about one of his friends wanting to date her. Maybe if didn't care then maybe he wouldn't make a big deal about Paul wanting to be with her.

"I told him it was okay with me if that's what you wanted" Shane replied heading towards the living room "I guess I'll head back to the living room and make sure nothing else gets broke."

"Is that what you want?" Paul asked Stephanie after Shane had disappeared.

"No of course not. If Shane doesn't mind if Zach asks me out then maybe he won't mind if you do" Stephanie explained as he finally raised his head and looked at her.

"I hope so" Paul replied smiling weakly at her.

"Do you want to go sit down?" Stephanie asked trying to change the subject. She could tell the conversation had put him in a bad mood.

"Sure" Stephanie left the kitchen and headed to the living room that was less crowded than before. It seemed some people were starting to head home. She sat down on the couch and moments later felt him sit down beside of her. They sat and talked for awhile longer until it was time for her to leave.

Stephanie walked across the parking lot to her car with Paul at her side. He had insisted to walk her down to her car and she had no complaints about that considering with everyone started to head home Shane's attention had been occupied on them. She had wanted some more time alone with him and she was surprised Shane hadn't followed them, she was starting to lose hope that Shane would be okay with them being together.

"Thanks for walking me down to my car" Stephanie said unlocking the car.

"You're welcome" Paul replied as she opened the car door.

"Paul?"

"Yeah?" He asked coming closer to her.

"Earlier tonight when you said you have liked me for awhile. How long exactly?" Stephanie asked before he leaned down kissing her softly on the lips. When the kiss was over she opened her eyes to see him smiling.

"Good night Stephanie" Paul said shaking his head with a smile as he started walking off.

"You're not going to tell me?"

"No. You wouldn't tell me earlier why you were smiling"

"That's not fair" Stephanie called as he got farther away.

"Good night" Paul called back. She got into the car and started it, watching disappear into the apartment building before she left.

It didn't take her very long to get home. Vince and Linda were already in bed so she decided to head onto bed, she had a really good night if you minus Melanie being at the party. Stephanie undressed and threw on her pajamas before getting into bed. It didn't take long before she fell asleep thinking about everything that happened with Paul and excitement to see him again.

* * *

The next day Stephanie sat on her bed talking on the phone to Allie about everything that had happened the night before.

"He invited Melanie?" Allie asked in a disgusted tone.

"Yeah and he talked to her for the first half I was there until I headed into what I thought was Shane's room but it turned out to be his. I was in there for maybe a minute or two before he came in to the room with me"

"And?" Allie asked, Stephanie smiled at the impatience in her voice.

"He asked me what I was talking about with Zach-"

"Oh, jealousy?"

"I don't know I didn't want to ask him but it definitely seemed like it and I made a joke about it"

"What did he say?"

"That was when he asked me if I still had feelings for him and I told him the truth. The next thing I know he was kissing me"

"Are you being serious?" Allie asked in between coughing.

"Yes. Are you okay?"

"Yeah I got choked on my drink. What happened after that?"

"We talked for a few more minutes. He told me that he only invited Melanie because she told him that her and I were best friends"

"That bitch is so conniving"

"Yeah she is. Paul kissed my cheek later when we were in front of her and she didn't like that at all. The next thing I know she's going on about how he may like me now but so did Tyler before she came along"

"So she pulled that shit out to hurt you?"

"That or to try and get in my head"

"Well I think it's clear now that Paul likes you and I don't think he's going to fall for Melanie's pathetic shit"

"I don't think so either but I have Shane to worry about" Stephanie said laying back on her bed and sighing.

"Why?"

"He's been watching us like a hawk. The first night he seen Paul and I flirting with each other he told me to end it and every time he catches us alone or just practically anything together he gives me this pissed off look"

"It sounds like he is being way too overprotective"

"I know and I wish he would just back off" Stephanie replied with annoyance in her voice. She was distracted from her conversation with Allie when she heard distant voices downstairs and one of them sounded like Shane. "Let me call you back. I think Paul might be here" Stephanie started hearing kissing noises on the other end and she rolled her eyes.

"Shut up" Stephanie said while Allie laughed.

"Bye" Allie said in between laughing.

"Bye" Stephanie replied shaking her head as she ended the phone call. She tossed her cellphone on the bed and headed downstairs hoping Paul was with Shane.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs she noticed nobody was in the living room anymore so she headed to the kitchen to see if they went there. Stephanie walked into the kitchen and immediately spotted Paul. He was sitting next to Shane who was talking with Vince and Linda.

"Hey" Stephanie said going over to everyone and sitting down beside of Paul.

"How was your night last night?" Linda asked her.

"It was great" Stephanie smiled taking a quick glance at Paul who didn't seem to be paying attention to her, which was weird.

"Your father and I must have been asleep when you came back in"

"Yeah it was pretty late" Stephanie replied as Paul suddenly got up and headed out of the kitchen. She was definitely feeling confused at this point. He didn't look at her or talk to her. Stephanie sat there for a few minutes wondering if he was going to come back before she decided to go look for him.

"Where are you going?" Shane asked her as she headed out of the kitchen.

"I left my phone upstairs. I'm just going to get it" Stephanie lied quickly before turning back around and leaving. When she noticed he wasn't in the living room she decided to check outside first. She stepped on the porch and seen him leaning up against the house on the other side of her. He looked up at her for a moment before taking his gaze towards the lawn in front of them.

"Hey" Stephanie said breaking the tension between them.

"Hey" replied Paul before taking a drink of the soda in his hand.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing much" Paul replied still not looking at her. She started to feel confused and like he was trying to blow her off.

"So...was everything that happened last night all in my head?" Stephanie asked her forehead wrinkling in confusion.

"No, it happened"

"Okay then what is going on because I am really confused" Stephanie replied hearing him sigh.

"We can't do this Steph" Paul said finally looking over at her. At the moment it felt like the wind had been knocked out of her and someone had just stabbed her in the heart.

"Why?"

"I asked Shane" Paul said slipping his hands in his pockets.

"And?"

"Not only did he say no but his exact words were hell no and that I should stop flirting with you and to end whatever was going on between us. He really wasn't happy about seeing us come out of my room last night. I didn't think I would ever heard the end of it and I'm afraid that if I don't end this then I'll lose Shane as a friend"

"That's it? It's over before it even begins?" Stephanie asked feeling the tears pool in her eyes and she sniffed.

"Please don't cry" Paul said softly as she shook her head "This is what I was worried about. This is why I was afraid to take it further because I didn't want to ruin our friendship if it didn't work out. I didn't want to see you get hurt and things be awkward between us"

Stephanie just stood there not saying a word just trying to wipe the tears away. She was being rejected by him again, maybe this was the way of the world telling her to give up hope for a relationship with Paul. That she needed to move on.

"Did he tell you why?" Stephanie asked quietly.

"No" Paul replied shaking his head. "Just so you know, I really do like you Steph and for what its worth I'm sorry. I hope we can continue to be friends like we were"

Stephanie stood silent as Paul walked off letting a few more tears slip out. She was hurt and pissed at the same time, all she knew at this point was she was going to go off on Shane.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day Stephanie found herself knocking on Paul and Shane's door. She hadn't got to talk to Shane about everything that happened yesterday without bringing their parents into it and she wanted to avoid that at all costs. After a moment of standing there waiting Stephanie knocked again and the door finally opened revealing Paul.

"Hey" Stephanie said trying to avoid eye contact. After their conversation yesterday he avoided her the rest of the time he was at her house.

"Hey" Paul replied stepping aside so she could enter the apartment. Stephanie walked past him into the living room and headed to Shane's room. "He's not here"

Stephanie stopped before completely making it to Shane's room and turned back around.

"Where is he?" Stephanie asked finally making direct eye contact with Paul. She watched as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I just got home and he wasn't here" Paul replied before he went off into the kitchen. Stephanie stood still not sure whether to follow Paul into the kitchen or just leave and come back later. She definitely felt awkward just standing there and Paul was acting the same way he had yesterday. Stephanie sighed and decided just to come back later and made her way to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Home I guess" Stephanie said opening the door.

"Wait" She heard him say as she started to leave. Stephanie turned around to see him leaning against the kitchen doorframe.

"What?" Stephanie asked stepping back into the apartment closing the door behind her. She crossed her arms and watched him play with the lid to his water bottle.

"I don't want things to be weird between us"

"It's too late for that. I thought at least we would still be friends like we were because you said that is what you wanted but you're not treating me the same way anymore"

"Cause it's too hard to go back exactly how it was Steph. When I joke with you it turns to flirting and its hard when I have feelings for you and there is nothing I can do about it. Then Shane will bitch about the flirting and will think something is going on behind his back and then there is you. You end up hurt over it all"

"I'm already hurt Paul" Stephanie shrugged and looked away trying not to start crying.

"I know and I'm sorry. You have no idea how much"

"So this is how its going to be from now on? Things will never be the same again?"

"I didn't say that but it won't be the same right away. Its going to take time, all we can do right now is try to move on"

Stephanie stood there staring at the ground. She knew she had to move on but hearing the words come out of his mouth was like a punch in the stomach. After a moment of silence Stephanie opened her mouth to say something back but the apartment door opened and she could hear Shane laughing. With a confused expression on her face she looked over to the door to Shane coming in and behind him was Zach, they both were laughing. Shane stopped laughing when he saw Stephanie and Paul.

"What are you doing here?" Shane asked looking at Stephanie.

"I came to talk to you but you weren't here. I was about to leave and come back later" Stephanie replied but Shane made a face as if he didn't believe her.

"Hey Stephanie" Zach acknowledged her with a smile.

"Hey Zach. How are you?" Stephanie asked as Shane left towards the kitchen, hopefully he would let go of what he probably thought of when seeing her and Paul alone.

"I'm good and you?"

"I'm fine" Stephanie replied with a smile.

"So uh Steph, how would you feel about going out to dinner with Zach tonight?" Shane asked coming back into the living room and stood beside of Zach.

"Well that is awkward" Zach said with a laugh.

"Do you not want to?" Shane asked him.

"I want to but you just asked your sister on a date for me. I would rather ask her myself"

"She shouldn't have a problem with it. I mean you aren't seeing anyone, right Steph?" Shane asked looking at her and she realized he was trying to see if anything was going on between her and Paul. He was trying to keep her away from Paul.

"No Shane I'm not seeing anyone" Stephanie replied resisting the urge to narrow her eyes at him.

"Would you like to go to dinner with me tonight?" Zach asked her before Shane had the chance to say anything else to her.

"Don't you already have plans tonight Steph?" Paul asked as she looked over at him. He had his arms crossed and the jealous look he had the last time she had talked to Zach. She didn't know if he was trying to give her a chance to get out of the date or if he just didn't want her going.

"Actually I don't" Stephanie replied and looked back to Zach "I would like to"

"Great" Zach said with a big smile on his face and she couldn't help but return it. Out of the corner of her eye she couldn't but notice Paul had left the spot he was standing in and a moment later she heard a door slam shut. She felt a little guilty but Paul had said they needed to move on and he wanted Shane to know nothing was going on, this was the perfect way to do both.

* * *

"You did what?" Allie asked Stephanie shaking her head.

After exchanging numbers with Zach and setting a time to go to dinner Stephanie had decided to head to her best friend's house. She had just got done telling Allie everything that had happened between her and Paul and about agreeing to go out with Zach tonight.

"Paul said he wanted us to move on so I thought why not just go on a date with Zach"

"Are you trying to ruin any chance between you and Paul?" Allie asked as Stephanie sighed.

"There is no chance Allie. Were you not listening to anything I've been saying?"

"Well there might not be now. I have been listening and it's not that he doesn't want to be with you, he can't. He has feelings for you Steph and I know he is trying to respect Shane but something could always change and you just hurt him by dating one of his friends"

"I'm not dating him. It's one date and I don't think anything will change with Paul, it's the way of the universe telling me we aren't meant to be"

"You have to stop relying on stuff like that Stephanie" Allie replied with a roll of her eyes.

"Then how would you explain it?"

"Your brother is a dick and needs to remove the stick from his ass. He is what is keeping you two apart and I don't understand it. You're not a little girl anymore, you can take care of yourself"

"I wish he would realize that"

"Even if he did Paul might be upset about you and Zach now" Allie said making Stephanie feel even more guilty about going out with Zach. She knew Allie had a point though but the damage had already been done and she didn't want to hurt Zach either and she couldn't sit around waiting on a possibility for something that may never happen.

"It's not going to happen anyway Allie" Stephanie replied leaning her head back on the sofa.

"You never know"

"When did you become optimistic?"

"Since last night when I told Daniel I would marry him" Allie said as Stephanie sat up and looked at her.

"What? Why didn't you tell me instead of letting me go on about my problems?" Stephanie asked taking her hand and looking at her ring.

"I knew you were upset and needed to vent"

"It was so unimportant though. Congratulations" Stephanie smiled excited for her best friend. She had never seen Allie so happy before.

"We haven't set a date yet but you are going to be my maid of honor so if you're back in school by time we get married you are coming back here for it"

"I promise I will"

"Okay enough about me. What time is your dinner tonight?" Allie asked getting up from her seat.

"Seven"

"I have this dress that I have never wore and I think it would be perfect for tonight"

"Why do you have it if you weren't going to wear it?" Stephanie asked getting up from the sofa and falling her down the hallway.

"I hate dresses but my mom keeps giving them to me for special occasions" Allie replied opening her closet door in her bedroom. Stephanie watched her go through the clothes until she finally pulled out a black sleeveless dress that fanned out at the bottom and looked like it would reach a little bit above her knees.

"Its not too formal but its not too slutty at the same time" Allie said handing her the dress.

"I love it"

"Keep it please" Allie replied "it might get you laid"

"Allie! I'm not trying to sleep with him besides I thought you were against me even going out with Zach"

"Well I didn't mean tonight, maybe sometime in the future if you decide to wear it again. I'm not really against this date I'm just trying to tell you not to give up hope on Paul"

"Thanks Allie" Stephanie replied hugging her the best she could while holding the dress.

"Okay, okay" Allie laughed breaking the hug. "So why is Shane okay with this date when he is friends with Zach too?"

"I have no idea. I'm still trying to figure that one out"

"It's so hypocritical for him to be okay with Zach but not Paul" Allie said as they left her bedroom.

"I know and I'm still going to talk to him about it but with Zach being there and asking me out I couldn't really get into it with him"

"Well just call me when you do and call me after your date tonight"

"I will. I need to get going I have to get prepared for tonight"

"I'll talk to you later" Allie said as Stephanie walked over to the door.

"I'll talk to you later" Stephanie replied opening the door and walked out.

* * *

Later that night Stephanie stood looking at her outfit in the mirror, she had paired the dress with some black high heeled booties and had curled her hair in loose waves. Stephanie looked at her phone quickly at the time and it was 6:36, it was almost time for him to arrive and she was feeling nervous. Placing the phone in her purse she made her way downstairs to wait for Zach to arrive.

"You look great. Where are you going?" Linda asked as Stephanie reached the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm going on a date" Stephanie replied watching her moms face light up.

"Is it Paul?"

"What?" Stephanie asked nervous that Shane had told their parents about her and Paul or worse maybe Melanie did.

"Are you going on a date with Paul?"

"No. What would make you think that?"

"I don't know if it's obvious to everyone else or just me but I see the way you look at him and talk to him. He is the same way towards you. He's completely smitten with you as you are him so I thought maybe there was something going on"

"No we aren't going out on a date" Stephanie replied not wanting to go farther into it.

"Who are you going on a date with then?" Linda asked slightly tilting her head to the side with a confused expression

"With Shane's friend Zach"

"Oh" Linda replied a little less enthused then when she thought it was Paul "well be safe and have fun"

"I will mom" Stephanie replied thinking about if her mom would really be happy if she did date Paul. She would probably be the only one. She didn't get to dwell on it long before she heard a knock on the door. Taking a breath and slowly letting it out she calmed her even more jumbled nerves before going to the door.

"Hey" Stephanie greeted Zach after opening the door to find Zach. He was dressed casually in a gray shirt and jeans which made her feel way over dressed.

"Wow" Zach said looking at her and making her blush a little.

"Thank you"

"I know I'm a little early but honestly I just couldn't wait" Zach said smiling at her shyly.

"That's fine" Stephanie replied stepping out and shutting the door behind her.

They made their way down the driveway to her car and Stephanie went to reach for the handle but he had got to it before her and opened it. Stephanie couldn't help but smile as she got in and he closed the door behind, Her worries about the date disappearing a little at how much of a gentlemen he was being at the moment. Honestly she had been a little worried about how it would be like when it was just the two of them alone. She put her seatbelt on as he got in the car and then a few minutes later they were driving away from her house.

"Earlier today was weird" Zach said breaking the silence between them.

"Oh the whole thing with Shane? I agree" Stephanie replied nodding her head.

"Well yeah that too but also with Paul. He just really acted weird" Stephanie didn't really know how to respond and she didn't understand why everybody's favorite topic today was Paul.

"What do you mean?"

"Did you not notice? It was the way he responded to me asking you out and then he went to his room slamming the door behind him. He never left his room the rest of the time I was there"

"I have no idea why he was like that" Stephanie replied knowing it wasn't completely the truth. Paul had never came out and said he was jealous but she thought he was. Plus she knew he liked her and had wanted to date her.

"I know this is an inappropriate question and none of my business but did you two used to um…." Zach trailed off but she knew where he was going with the question.

"No, never" Stephanie replied turning her head looking out the window feeling uncomfortable.

"Sorry its just…well after Shane and Paul moved I would go visit them ever once in awhile and when they first moved Paul didn't seem like himself. The only time he seemed to act like himself was if Shane mentioned your name" Stephanie was stunned with the information Zach provided but it didn't make much sense to her considering her considering he didn't like her in that way back then unless she was wrong. Also Paul wouldn't even visit their house after him and Shane moved.

"That's weird" Stephanie mumbled.

"Anyway, what kind of food do you like?" Zach asked her changing the subject which she was grateful for.

"I'll try anything but I usually just stick with burgers, chicken, and fish. Those would probably be my favorites"

"Okay I was thinking about going to this steakhouse that has pretty good food. They have burgers if that is what you were prefer, I heard they are good. I usually get steak when I go there"

"That sounds good" Stephanie replied and they fell into silence until they arrived at their destination.

Once they arrived Zach turned off the car and got out heading to her side and opened her door for her. Then they made their way into the restaurant and waited for a few minutes before they were seated at a small table. The waitress took their drink order before leaving them to look over the menu.

"I don't even know why I even look at this honestly. I was order the same thing" Zach said flipping his menu closed and giving a small laugh.

"I do that a lot too" Stephanie replied tucking her hair behind her ears.

"So what have you been doing since coming back home?"

"Nothing much really. I've been pretty unproductive although I have been wanting to get a part time job"

"Any idea what type of job?"

"No clue" Stephanie replied with a laugh as the waitress came back with their drinks. While she was there they ordered their food and then she was off again. Stephanie closed her menu and put it aside looking over at Zach not knowing what to say. Conversation with him didn't come as easy as it did with Paul but then again she never really talked to Zach except for at the party.

"I'm pretty surprised Shane was okay with me asking you out"

"Why?"

"He was always so protective of you. He was always telling us not to flirt or try checking you out"

"He always acted protective but I was never sure if it was that or he didn't want his little sister hanging around him"

"It was probably both but he probably didn't want you hanging around him cause we were pretty much always partying and drunk. He probably didn't want one of us trying something on you while we were intoxicated and I can't blame him. I mean look how Dan was to you at the party when he was completely drunk"

"Don't remind me" Stephanie replied with a laugh.

They spent the next little bit talking about different things and Stephanie started feeling more comfortable as the conversation started flowing more easily. Once their food arrived the talking ceased a little as they began enjoying the food.

"Wow this is pretty good" Stephanie said after taking a bite of her burger.

"I was hoping you would like it" Zach replied as she picked up her tea and took a drink. Stephanie put her drink down back down as she heard a chair scrape against the floor and seen someone sit down beside her from the corner of her eye.

"I was not expecting to see you two here" Stephanie turned her head to see that it was Paul who had sit down beside of her.

"Uh hey Paul" Zach greeted him looking at him weird.

"What are you doing here?" Stephanie asked as he scooted his chair closer to hers.

"I came here to pick up some food to go and I seen you two and decided to come join you. You don't mind do you?"

"Do you remember earlier today when I asked Stephanie on a date?" Zach asked him as Paul stole a fry from Stephanie's plate and took a bite.

"Yeah" Paul replied taking another bite of the fry. Stephanie wasn't sure if he was pretending not to get that Zach was trying to tell him no or if he honestly didn't understand.

"That is what we are on right now"

"So I take that as a no?" Paul asked drawing out the word no.

Yeah it is a no" Zach replied nodding his head as they sat staring at each other. Stephanie was feeling pretty uncomfortable at this point.

"Can't I just sit here until my food is done?" Paul asked as Stephanie felt him place his hand on her knee. She was appalled that he would try something on her when she was on a date, she pushed his hand off of her knee and he turned his head looking at her.

"I'll be right back" Zach said annoyed and Stephanie looked over at him giving him an apologetic look. She watched him walk in the direction of the restrooms before returning her attention back to Paul.

"What are you doing?" Stephanie asked him.

"I just came over to talk" Paul replied acting innocent.

"Cut the bullshit Paul. This is very uncomfortable"

"Well I tried helping you get out of the date" Paul replied shrugging his shoulders.

"I didn't want out of the date. You are making this uncomfortable"

"Why did you come on this date?" Paul asked ignoring her last comment.

"Because he asked me"

"Is that the only reason?"

Yes. What else would it be?" Stephanie asked rolling her eyes. Stephanie sighed and looked towards the direction Zach went in to find him heading back towards the table.

"Well it was a great talking to you. I'm going to go see if my food is done" Paul said getting up from his seat.

"Bye Paul" Zach said before returning back to his food.

"Yeah. Bye Steph" Paul said leaving their table.

The rest of their dinner was in silence as they ate their food. Zach seemed to be in a bad mood since Paul had came over and basically ruined their date. It wasn't until they were in the car and driving back to Stephanie's house that Zach finally said anything.

"Am I fighting a losing battle here Stephanie?" Zach asked looking over at her a moment before returning his attention back to the road.

"What are you talking about?" Stephanie asked confused.

"Do you still have feelings for Paul?"

"How did you know I used to-"

"I think everyone knew. It was obvious and I was hoping maybe after this long they would be gone and that was why I asked about Paul earlier. I was trying to see if you still had feelings for him"

"It's complicated" Stephanie replied embarrassed.

"It really isn't Stephanie. It's a yes or no answer but whatever it is it seems like Paul still has something for you" Zach said pulling into her driveway and looking over at her.

"Yes...I do but I'm trying to move on"

"Why did you agree to go on a date with me?"

"I had fun with you at the party and you are a good guy. I like being with you" Stephanie replied as she watched him look in the direction of her house.

"We just can't escape him tonight" Zach said with a sigh and shaking his head. Stephanie followed his gaze to see Paul standing beside of the front door resting his back on the house with his arms crossed watching them.

"Goodnight Stephanie" Zach said as she looked over at him. He gave her a weak smile.

"Goodnight Zach" Stephanie replied opening the car door. She took the hint that there was basically nothing left to talk about. After closing the door and watching him pull out of her driveway she headed towards her house to face Paul.

"What are you doing here?" Stephanie asked aggravated and pulled her keys out of her purse.

"Just seeing how the rest of your date went" Paul said as she unlocked her door and then turned to her side to face him with a pissed off expression on her face.

"Are you being serious right now?" Stephanie almost shouted. Paul turned to completely face her and just stared at her.

"I don't think I've ever seen you this pissed off before" Paul said with an amused smile "It's kind of hot"

"Don't Paul" Stephanie warned "Stop playing mind games with me, it's confusing and irritating. You either be with me or don't"

"I'm not or at least I don't think I am" Paul replied walking to the edge of the porch that faced the driveway.

"Then what was tonight about?" Stephanie asked turning around to face him.

"He was wasn't right for you Steph"

"Then who is Paul?" Stephanie asked flinging her arms out at her side and letting them fall back down.

Paul just stood there not saying anything and Stephanie scoffed. She knew she wasn't getting anything else from him. So with that she turned and opened the front door and stepped inside she turned back around to look at him.

"Goodnight Paul" Stephanie said before closing the door and locking it.


	6. Chapter 6

Thank you for the reviews! I'm glad you guys are enjoying this! Here is the next chapter and I hope you enjoy this one.

* * *

Stephanie laid on her bed just staring up at the ceiling feeling down in the dumps. It had been a week since her horrible uncomfortable date with Zach, thanks to Paul. She hadn't heard from Zach since that night and she couldn't blame him. What kind of person would want to try another date after what had happened? Even though it sucked he hadn't try to have contact with her it didn't really bother her as much as her situation with Paul. He just showed up during and after her date to tell her Zach wasn't right for. All she had wanted that night after asking him who was right for her was for him to say himself and kiss her. Unfortunately that didn't happen and it left her upset for going through all of that to ruin her date. She was still wondering how he even knew where Zach had taken her on their date.

It didn't look like she would find out though because even though she still wanted to talk to Shane she hadn't even attempted to go to his apartment. She was still irritated at Paul and for the first time in her life, she didn't want to be near him. So she had avoided that place like the plague which meant all week she hadn't done much of anything but maybe visit Ali.

"Stephanie can you come down here?" She heard her mother call from downstairs breaking her out of her thoughts.

Stephanie rolled off the bed and on to her feet and headed downstairs.

"I'm so glad you are here maybe you can help" Stephanie heard Linda say as she descended down the stairs with her heart racing. Was her mother talking about her and if she was did she call Paul? Stephanie was almost down the stairs when she heard another voice and she wanted to run quickly back up the stairs before anyone noticed.

"Stephanie" she heard the sickly sweet fake voice after she had turned her back and was going to run back upstairs.

"Melanie" Stephanie said turning back around to her face her. She didn't even try to keep the annoyance out of her voice, she didn't feeling like playing charades today.

"Linda was telling me you haven't been yourself" Melanie said putting her hand on chest and gave her a fake look of sympathy.

"Don't even pretend to care. You want to take any happiness I have away" Stephanie retorted. Yes she was taking her anger out on Melanie because she couldn't take it out on Paul. It wasn't like the bitch didn't deserve it though.

"Stephanie!" Linda said crossing her arms "Melanie is trying to be your friend again. You don't need to be treating her this way"

"It's okay Linda" Melanie replied looking over at Linda "I know it is going to take time"

Stephanie rolled her eyes at how gullible Linda was and she was irritated that her mother keep taking up for Melanie. When would she just stop butting in her life?

"Is this over Paul?" Melanie asked looking back at Stephanie. She could see the excitement on Melanie's face. Stephanie knew that was exactly what she was hoping for.

"Paul? What about him?" Linda asked looking at Stephanie.

"They recently told me that they were basically together" Melanie replied giving a shrug of her shoulders.

"But you went on a date with Zach" Linda replied sounding confused as a smile started spreading across Melanie's face. She had got exactly what she wanted and it just seemed so damn easy. Why did she let herself get tricked into this?

"Stephanie I want you to explain this" Linda said in a stern voice.

"I promise I will later but right now.." Oh God she couldn't believe she was about to say this but "I want to talk to Melanie"

"Since you are willing to make an effort with Melanie that is fine with me" Linda said her voice softening "but you and I will talk about this later"

"Fine mom"

"Tamara is the in the kitchen so I'm going to go back in there. Be nice Stephanie" Linda replied and headed back to the kitchen. Stephanie hated that her mother was treating her like she was still in high school but hell lately it seemed like she was.

Stephanie made her way completely down the stairs and stood a few inches from Melanie and crossed her arms.

"What the hell was that?" Stephanie asked feeling angry as Melanie tossed her blonde locks over her shoulder.

"Catching you in your lie" Melanie replied dropping her façade now that Linda was out of the room.

"I wasn't lying" Stephanie replied clenching her teeth.

"Then why are you dating other guys?" Melanie asked arching her brow. Stephanie couldn't tell her the truth because if she knew about the situation she knew Melanie could use it to her advantage.

"That is what I thought" Melanie smirked after Stephanie remained silent.

"He doesn't want you" Stephanie said but Melanie's smirk remained.

"Apparently he doesn't want you either but he doesn't really know me yet. I can always change his mind but from what I understand you two have been friends for years and he still doesn't like you the way you obviously want him to" Melanie replied with a laugh and Stephanie had to restrain herself from slapping her so hard she would taste blood.

"If he hasn't changed his mind in years about me what makes you think he will change his mind about you?"

"I have my ways Stephanie" Melanie said but indulged no further information.

"Girls why don't you come join us for tea" Stephanie heard Linda say breaking her penetrating stare from Melanie. Linda had came back into the room, probably to check on them.

Stephanie slowly made her way into the kitchen behind Melanie. She didn't want any more of her mother's lectures right now so she sat down in a chair and remained silent for the rest of the time Tamara and Melanie were there.

Stephanie sat silently as Linda poured herself another cup of tea. Melanie and Tamara were leaving but Linda didn't walk them out, instead she waited until they heard the faint sound of the front door opening and closing.

"Tell me what is going on" Linda said breaking the silence and Stephanie looked down staring at the counter.

"Nothing mom it was a joke"

"Don't lie to me Stephanie. I know when you're lying, you are bad at it" Linda said as Stephanie looked up at her seeing the stern expression across her mother's face.

"What do you want to know?" Stephanie asked not really sure if should tell her mother about it all.

"Why did you go on a date with Zach if you told Melanie you and Paul were together?"

"Because he asked me and…Paul and I can't be together" Stephanie replied telling her mother the truth. It wasn't like she could lie and her mother seemed to already have her suspicions about her and Paul.

"Why can't you be together" Linda asked softly as she placed her hand on Stephanie's arm. Stephanie thought it was probably to try and comfort her.

"Shane basically forbid it and with Shane being Paul's best friend, he doesn't want to go against him"

"I can see why he wouldn't want to feel like he betrayed Shane and hurt him but he's also hurting you in this process. Shane can get over this and I think he will eventually. Its just Shane is as stubborn as your father and he thinks he is doing right by trying to make sure you don't get hurt but honestly I think he is hurting you worse by not letting this happen" Linda explained and Stephanie stared into her eyes as Linda smiled at her. Did this mean she was on her side for once?

"I don't know if he will get over it mom and I like Paul so much. All I have ever wanted was for him to like me back and now he does and Shane is ruining everything"

"How long has this been going on Stephanie?"

"Since I got back"

"No I meant how long have you felt this way?" Linda asked and Stephanie looked away for a moment feeling embarrassed.

"Since I was fifteen" Stephanie replied and Linda nodded her head.

"I thought so" Linda replied "Every time Paul was here that was were you were. Then the way you looked at him and the way he would look at you. He would do anything to get you to smile"

"No mom you misunderstood. It was me who liked him at fifteen, he didn't like me like that" Stephanie said shaking her head.

"I think he had a crush on you too but he was older and he knew better. He knew he couldn't do anything and I respect him for not trying but he felt something for you too you just didn't know. Doesn't it make sense why now he lets you know he likes you back?" Linda asked tilting her head to the side. Stephanie thought about it for a moment but she was unconvinced. She remembered that night she tried to kiss him, the look on his face and the speech he gave after.

"It really doesn't matter now mom. It's over" Stephanie replied shrugging her shoulders.

"Not if you don't let it be" Linda said shocking Stephanie.

"What are you suggesting? That we go behind Shane's back?"

"I think you will think of something but don't give up Stephanie. I know Paul cares about you and I think Shane will eventually come around. I would suggest trying to talk to Shane and letting him know this is hurting you worse than if things ended badly between you and Paul. Maybe you can play on his feelings of not wanting you to get hurt when he is the one causing you pain right now" Linda replied standing up and taking her cup to the sink. Stephanie couldn't believe the advice she just gave her basically telling her to manipulate Shane. It might actual work though.

"Thanks mom" Stephanie said with a smile. It was the first time in a week she had even felt like smiling. Stephanie jumped up from her seat and started to leave.

"Where are you going?" Linda asked and Stephanie turned around.

"To talk to Shane" Stephanie replied and turned back around and made her way out of the kitchen.

* * *

It didn't take her long to arrive at their apartment. Stephanie was still in her car though drumming her fingers against the steering wheel feeling nervous. Before she had got there she was feeling confident and happy and now she was staring at the building scared of going in. This seemed like such a good idea before she got here and thought about how Shane would actually react to this. Then she had to see Paul after what had happened last week and she was still irritated at him but she was nervous too of how he would treat her. Would he be cold and distant again?

Finally after convincing herself that she could do this, she stepped out of the car and shut it behind her. Stephanie went to readjust her clothes and that was when she realized she forgot to change before coming over. She was still in a white tank top and gray sweatpants, it wasn't what she really wanted Paul to see her in. Now she wished she hadn't been moping all day because she would of got up and threw something cute on at least. Oh well this would of have to do. Stephanie walked into the building and went straight to the elevator pressing the button.

When the doors opened she stepped inside and pushed the number to their floor. It didn't take long before the doors reopened and she was walking to their door and knocked.

"Hold on" Stephanie heard Paul's voice. Stephanie stood and waited for a minute or two and then the door opened and Paul was standing in front of her. She could feel herself drooling as she stared at the sight in front of her. He was standing there shirtless and wearing his track pants while he ran a towel through his hair. She had never seen him without a shirt and she couldn't help but run her eyes over his muscular torso fighting the urge to run her hand over it. Her irritation from last week seem to dissipate at that moment.

"Are you okay?" Paul asked and she finally looked up at his face to see him smirking at her.

"Yeah I'm fine" Stephanie replied clearing her throat as he stepped aside to let her in.

"Where is Shane?" Stephanie asked trying hard not to stare at him as she passed him.

"He'll be back soon. He just left to go pick some food up so make yourself at home" Paul replied as he headed towards his bedroom.

Stephanie stared at him until he was no longer in sight and made her way to the couch and sat down. The tv remote was laying on the couch beside of her so she grabbed it and flipped through the channels until she found one of her favorite movies on. She needed something to distract her from thinking about Paul without his shirt which led to thoughts about Paul without any of his clothes. Stephanie snapped herself out of her thoughts trying to refocus on the movie.

"Are you staying for dinner?" Stephanie heard Paul ask and she turned around to see him putting on a black tank top.

"I don't know, maybe" Stephanie replied turning back around quickly. It all depended on how Shane reacted to what she had to say.

Stephanie went back to her movie and finally was able to focus on it. After a few moments she was mouthing the words to her one of her favorite parts when she noticed Paul sit down beside of her from the corner of her eye. She kept focusing on the movie though because her favorite line in probably the whole movie was coming up when suddenly the channel changed to sports. Stephanie looked over at Paul who was holding the tv remote now. Oh why did she lay it down? She should of known something like that would happen.

"Paul! Turn it back"

"I am not watching a chick flick. It's just not happening, sorry"

"Come on. You told me to make myself at home" Stephanie reminded him and he just shook his head at her.

Stephanie waited for him to turn his attention to the tv and then she tried snatching the remote away but he apparently had been anticipating it and switched it to his other hand. Then he stretched his arm across the other side of the sofa trying to make sure she didn't get the remote. She wasn't giving up that easy though as she tried leaning across him to grab it. She felt his body start shaking as he started laughing.

"It's not funny Paul" Stephanie said as she started feeling irritated.

She almost had it when he raised his arm and stretched it behind him over the back of the couch. Stephanie raised up from her leaning position trying to figure out how to pin him so she could grab it from him. She looked at him and he smiled knowing she wouldn't be able to get it away from him no matter what she tried but she didn't care. She was going to try like hell to get it even if she didn't succeed. Trying to lean over the back of the couch and trying to grab it was useless so there was only one way she knew how to get to it easier. Stephanie without giving a second thought moved over on top of him, straddling him and reached behind him grabbing the edge of the remote. She kept pulling as it started to slide out of his hand but he regained control and pulled it out of her grasp completely and stretched his arm up over his head as far as it would go. Stephanie was sure she could get it now, he had no where to go now that she was straddling him. She reached up and her fingers found the bottom of the remote and he tried reaching his arm further and failed as he lost his grip and she pulled it out from his hand. Raising her arms in victory as she sat back down still straddling his lap and smiled a victorious smile at him but he just smiled back and shook his head. She sat there for a moment trying to calm her breathing, wrestling with him had got her out of breath. After she calmed down she went to remove herself from his lap hoping she could at least catch some other parts of the movie she liked when his hands grabbed the side of her hips and pulling her back on top of him. Stephanie opened her mouth to tell him she had won and he wasn't getting back but she stopped when she noticed he was no longer playing around.

His eyes were full of desire as she felt his hands start sliding from her hips to the edge of her tank top slipping his hands underneath running his hands over the sides of her stomach taking her shirt with them. The feel of his hands on her body made her burn with desire every little inch he made. Her heart beating wildly anticipating his touch as he reached her breasts but he kept sliding his hands along with her shirt until she raised her arms allowing him to pull it completely off of her. His eyes scanned over her half naked body and on to her white lacey bra bringing his hands back to her breasts fondling them through the fabric of her bra. She moaned as he rolled his thumbs over her now erect nipples causing her to grind her hips feeling his erection beneath her. He moaned and freed one of her breasts sliding his hand along the band of the bra around to the back to unhook it. Once the hooks came undone she slid the straps down her arms exposing her breasts to him. He pulled her closer to him planting soft kisses on her breast before she felt his mouth and then his teeth bite down gently on her nipple and flick the end with his tongue sending a wave of pleasure through her body.

Throwing her head back in the ecstasy feeling herself become more wet than she already had been. She rocked back and forth on his lap feeling his erection up against her wanting more, she closed her eyes getting lost in the sensations. Her pulse still racing, skin flushed and feeling the need of her release. She wanted him here and now, she didn't care about all the reason they shouldn't.

"I want you" Stephanie whispered so low she didn't even know if he had heard her but after a moment his mouth left her breast. He looked up at her before bringing her closer bringing his lips to hers kissing her passionately before he lifted her off him laying her down on the couch. His fingers instantly reaching the waistband of her pants, he started to pull them down but then froze. Stephanie felt disappointment wash over her as he stopped. She felt stupid for letting it go this far because apparently he really wasn't going to go against what Shane wanted but after a moment she heard something at the front door. Oh God it was Shane.


	7. Chapter 7

Thank you for the reviews! I hope you guys like this chapter :)

* * *

Stephanie jumped up from the couch quickly grabbing her shirt and bra and ran into the bathroom closing and locking the door behind her. She sat down on the edge of the bathtub trying to calm her racing pulse and nerves. They had almost got caught by Shane and it was completely embarrassing.

Stephanie put her bra on as she heard muffled voices coming from the living room. After getting her shirt back on Stephanie waited a couple of minutes before flushing the toilet to make it seem if she had been only in there to use the bathroom. She turned on the sink and washed her hands quickly and then turned and headed back to the living room. As soon as she made it back to the living room her eyes locked onto Paul's. He was still sitting on the couch and he's eyes still showed the desire he had earlier for her. It made her tremble and ache for what they were about to do before Shane came home. Somehow he always seemed to ruin her and Paul's timing.

"Hey Steph" Stephanie heard Shane say and she looked over at him as he was coming out of the kitchen.

"Hey"

"What brings you here?" Shane asked and Stephanie noticed he was in a good mood. Did she want to ruin that? Or maybe it was a good thing he was in a good mood.

"Um.. I need to.. talk to you" Stephanie replied nervously but Shane had got his cellphone out and was typing on it probably not even noticing how nervous she was.

"Hold on" Shane replied finishing up whatever he was doing on his phone. After he was done he went to put his phone in his pocket and then it started ringing. Stephanie couldn't help but feel a little annoyed as he picked it up and held up a finger at her before he headed to his room.

Stephanie crossed her arms and rested her back on the wall and waited for Shane to get off the phone as she watched Paul get up off the couch. She silently cursed Shane for coming in and ruining her chance of having sex with Paul. Closing her eyes and trying to relive the feel of his hands and mouth on her body when her cellphone started ringing. Grabbing the cellphone out of her pocket she looked at the caller ID to see her best friends name.

"Hello" Stephanie answered trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"Hey where are you?"

"I'm at Shane and Paul's apartment"

"I'm at your house. I came to see if you wanted to get lunch with me and well your mom kind of invited herself and told me to call you"

"Okay I'm leaving now then. I'll see you soon" Stephanie replied ending the call. She loved that her mom was on her side about things with Paul but she was starting to annoy her a little.

Stephanie headed to the kitchen to where Paul went to see him getting some of the food Shane had brought in.

"Can you tell Shane that I had to go and I'll come by later?" Stephanie asked as he turned slightly to look at her.

"Yeah"

"Thanks" Stephanie replied before turning around to head for the door.

"Steph" she turned back towards him for a moment "I really regret just not taking you to my room"

"I do too" Stephanie replied with a shy smile. Then she turned and headed for the door glad that she wasn't alone in thinking about what almost happened and the fact he didn't regret it almost happening.

* * *

Stephanie couldn't keep the smile off of her face as she opened the door to her house. As she made into the living room she could voices in the kitchen and headed that way knowing that was where Allie was.

"How did it go?" Linda asked as soon as she made her appearance in the kitchen.

"I didn't get a chance to talk to him because when I got there he had went out to get food. When he got back he was too busy on his phone and that's when I got Allie's call" Stephanie replied sitting down beside of Allie.

"What were you going over there to talk to him about?" Allie asked giving her a confused look.

"To talk to him about me and Paul"

"You can try talking to him later. Maybe he won't be so busy on his phone then" Linda said before taking a sip of her wine she had in her hand.

"Maybe. So are we going to lunch?"

"Yes just give me a minute" Linda replied heading out of the kitchen.

"I can't believe you were actually going to go talk to Shane" Allie said looking at her.

"I've been wanting to for awhile now and my mom gave me a push today"

"Well something must have happened because you haven't stopped smiling"

"Paul and I almost had sex" Stephanie said in almost a whisper. She didn't want her mom overhearing because that would be embarrassing.

"What?" Allie asked her eyes widening "Why almost?"

"Shane came home"

"So?" Allie said shrugging her shoulders.

"We were on the couch in the living room"

"Oh my God. Did he catch you?"

"No thankfully"

"How far did you get? Did you see his-"

"Allie!" Stephanie almost shouted feeling the heat rush to her face. She knew exactly what she was going to ask.

"What are you girls talking about?" Linda asked coming back in the kitchen and sitting her wine glass down.

"Nothing mom" Stephanie replied quickly.

"Your face is very red Stephanie"

"I need to go change before we go" Stephanie said standing up quickly remembering what she was wearing and thankful she could get away for a moment.

"Okay" Linda replied as Stephanie left the kitchen.

After arriving at Stephanie's favorite little restaurant and had been seated they were handed menus to look over and Linda asked for a extra menu. It left Stephanie feeling confused but she ignored it until a conversation popped into her mind with her mother not too long ago.

"Mom?"

"Yes Stephanie?"

"You didn't invite-"

'Hey Linda" Stephanie heard Melanie's voice behind her and looked over to Allie to see her jaw clench. This was not going to be good. She was definitely annoyed that her mother kept doing this.

"Melanie why don't you sit by me" Linda said pulling out the chair in front of Stephanie.

"Thank you Linda I'm so glad you called me. Hi Stephanie, Allie" Melanie said looking at them and faking at being nice as usual.

"Melanie" Stephanie said as Allie didn't even acknowledge her existence. Stephanie watched as her mother handed Melanie the extra menu and then gave her mother a look when Linda looked up at her. Linda ignored her and went back to looking at the menu in front of her.

"I'm sorry" Stephanie whispered to Allie.

"It's not your fault. Don't worry about it" Allie whispered back.

"Are you ladies ready to order?" The waiter from earlier asked.

"We need another water...can you make that two waters actually and another menu please?" Linda asked and Stephanie looked up at her wondering who else she could have possibly invited. Linda wasn't paying attention to Stephanie though. She was looking behind Stephanie and Allie and motioning someone with her hand to come over there.

"Hey Linda" Stephanie heard Paul's voice coming up from behind her. Then a moment later the empty chair beside of Stephanie was being occupied by Paul.

"Didn't you already eat?" Stephanie asked with a laugh.

"No actually the food was disgusting and I had to throw it out"

"And you just happen to come here?" Stephanie joked remembering how he conveniently showed up to her date with Zach.

"Yes I did. It's my favorite restaurant just so you know" Paul replied stretching his arm and resting it on the back of her chair. Stephanie looked over at Melanie who didn't see to be happy about the fact that Paul's arm was resting on her chair as her eyes was glued to his arm.

"Paul have you met Melanie?" Linda asked pointing to Melanie.

"Yes I have" Paul nodded not even looking at Melanie.

"How about Allie?" Linda asked pointing in Allie's direction and he looked over at her.

"No I haven't. It's nice to meet you" Paul said nodding his head at her but Allie sat still staring at him. Stephanie nudged her leg lightly.

"It's nice to meet you too" Allie replied with a smile.

"I can see the drool" Stephanie whispered in her ear.

"I can't help it. He is even more hot up close" Allie whispered back in her ear and Stephanie couldn't help but laugh at her response. She knew Allie was nothing like Melanie and wouldn't try hitting on Paul plus she was engaged woman now.

Stephanie watched as their waiter came back and handed them an extra menu and two waters and then left again.

"Paul how have you been?" Melanie asked Paul and Stephanie instantly felt her temper start to flare. This girl wasted no time in trying to flirt with him.

"I've been good"

"Really? I heard yesterday that Stephanie went on a date with another guy" Melanie replied and Stephanie looked up at her in disbelief that she would bring that up.

"That didn't last long, did it?" Paul asked and Stephanie looked over at Paul and her eyes locked onto his as he leaned closer to her. Bringing his fingers to her face and lightly tracing the line of her jaw with one of his fingers sending shivers down her spine. She couldn't help but smile especially since she knew Melanie was watching the whole display. Although she couldn't believe he was being that way to her in front of her mother.

"It was just misunderstanding" Stephanie heard Linda say and couldn't help but be a little less annoyed at her mom for inviting Melanie along.

Melanie didn't have a chance to reply though as the waiter came back over and they finally placed their order.

"So why is she here?" Paul asked whispering in Stephanie's ear and she knew he was referring to Melanie.

"My mom invited her"

"Oh. Well if your mom and you are here where is your dad?"

"Probably at the office"

"That means your house is empty. So you should make an excuse to get out of this and we can go back to your house and finish what we started earlier" Paul whispered and she blushed. Oh God did she want to do exactly that.

"I can't leave Allie" Stephanie whispered back knowing that Allie would probably kill her for leaving her with Linda and Melanie.

"Too bad"

Stephanie tried forgetting the tempting offer Paul had gave her as their food arrived. Honestly she was glad Melanie had stopped trying to flirt with Paul after his little display towards her. It actually was surprising because usually Melanie didn't stop even though it was hinted so plainly obvious that he didn't want her.

After half way through their meals as everyone but Melanie chatted as they ate Linda excused herself from the table.

"So Allie how have you been? I haven't heard a thing about you in so long. I think the last thing I heard was that you were pregnant" Melanie said as Stephanie looked over at Allie. She was narrowing her eyes at Melanie because she was the one that even started that rumor back in high school. Stephanie guessed since she couldn't pick on her she would try to pick on Allie.

"That's funny. I think the last thing I heard about you was that you were working the street corner but then I thought to myself no that can't be right. What guy would pay you for sex when after talking to you for five minutes you would just give it to him for free" Allie responded and Melanie's face turned to a scowl.

"Fuck you" Melanie replied pushing her chair away from the table and stalking off.

"I love you for that" Stephanie said throwing her arms around Allie and hugging her. "But my mom is going to be mad"

"Don't worry I'll take full responsibility. I'm tired of her being able to dish it out but then she can't take it back" Allie said shrugging her shoulders and going back to her food.

"I'm just glad she is gone" Stephanie said taking a drink of her water.

"So…Paul what is your intentions with my best friend?" Allie asked making Stephanie almost choke on her water. She heard Paul chuckle at Allie's question or maybe her?

"I care a lot about Steph, I have for awhile. She's very important to me" Paul replied rubbing her shoulder with his hand.

"Where is Melanie?" Linda asked interrupting Allie and Paul's conversation.

"She left. It's probably my fault" Allie replied as Linda sat back down.

"Oh. Well she didn't seem to be enjoying herself anyway" Linda said brushing it off. Maybe her mother had finally seen what she had been trying to tell her along. Who knew though but it did surprise Stephanie that Linda let it go that easy.

"Well thank you for inviting me to join you but I need to get going" Paul said looking at Linda.

"You're welcome" Linda replied with a smile. Stephanie watch Paul pull out his wallet and get some money out. "Oh don't worry about it Paul. I'm paying for lunch"

"I can't let you do that"

"I insist"

"Well thank you" Paul replied putting his wallet away and standing up. "It was nice to meet you Allie"

"You too Paul" Allie replied with a smile.

"I'll walk out with you" Stephanie said just wanting a small amount of alone time with him.

"Go on out I'm almost done and we will meet you out there" Linda said giving Stephanie a small smile. Stephanie looked over at Allie making sure it was okay and Allie wiggled her eyebrows at her. Stephanie resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at her before walking off beside of Paul.

"Well that was fun" Paul said with a laugh as they made it outside.

"I'm sorry about Allie. She can be blunt" Stephanie replied as Paul took her hand lacing his fingers in between hers.

"It's okay. She is a lot better than Melanie. I actually like Allie"

"Allie is pretty great" Stephanie said as they made it to his car. She wasn't quite ready for him to go yet. They had been having a pretty weird but great day with each other and she wasn't ready for it to end.

"I think you are great" Paul replied pulling her to him and wrapping his arms around her and leaning down and kissing her.

Stephanie wrapped her arms around his neck pressing herself against him and deepening their kiss. He broke free after a moment moving to her neck feeling the desire from earlier wash over her. Wanting him to touch her but they were unfortunately in a public place. He moved back to her mouth and backed up her against his car but the moment was ruined too quickly when she heard someone clear their throat. They broke their kiss and looked behind them to see her mother. Stephanie cast her eyes down at the ground feeling embarrassed.

"Sorry Linda" Paul said and Stephanie heard Allie giggle which meant she had caught them too.

"It's quite alright I was just wanted to let Stephanie know we were ready to leave"

"I'll see you later" Paul said lifting her chin and kissing her softly on the lips.

"Come with me" Stephane whispered to him and he smiled at her.

"I have some stuff to do but I'll try coming over later" Paul replied and Stephanie nodded her head but she felt disappointed. He leaned down and kissed her one last time.

"We'll see you later Paul" Linda said as Stephanie moved away from his car.

"See you later Linda" Paul replied opening his car door and getting in.

Allie grabbed Stephanie's arm pulling her to Linda's car as Paul started his car.

"He likes you a lot" Allie said opening the car door.

"I had that figured out" Stephanie replied with a laugh as Allie climbed in the back seat of the car and Stephanie slid in beside of her.

"Apparently it seems though he doesn't care what Shane has to say about it"

"I hope you're right"

"Why else would he be all over you?" Allie asked before Linda joined them in the car and started it.

"Mom-"

"Don't worry Stephanie I won't breathe a word of this to Shane" Linda said and Stephanie let out a breath of relief as they pulled out of the parking lot.

On the ride home Stephanie couldn't keep her mind off Paul as Allie and Linda carried on a conversation. She really had to go back and talk to Shane even though at this point she didn't care what he had to say but she want to know what his problem was with them being together.

"Are you okay?" Allie nudged her on the arm lightly breaking Stephanie from her thoughts.

"I'm fine just thinking"

"Is it about you and Paul?"

"Yes but not about that" Stephanie replied when Allie started to smile.

"Is this about Shane?"

"Yeah"

"If I were you I wouldn't ask Shane permission. I would just tell him that you were going to be with Paul and he could just deal with it" Allie said shrugging her shoulder.

"I just don't want him and Paul to get in a fight over it"

"You have to do something Steph. I think no matter which way it goes somebody is going to be pissed" Allie replied as Linda turned into the driveway and shut the car off.

"Thank you Allie for inviting me to lunch" Linda said opening her door.

"You're welcome" Allie replied as Linda got out of the car. As soon as she was gone Stephanie let out the laugh she had been holding back.

"I don't know why she thanked you when she invited herself. I'm still a little annoyed that she invited Melanie" Stephanie said shaking her head.

"Well she did kind of make up for it when she waved Paul over to join" Allie replied as they finally got out of the car.

Stephanie nodded her head in agreement and started for the house but froze when she finally noticed Shane's car in the driveway. She did want to talk to him but now suddenly she didn't feel prepared.

"Looks like you are going to get to have that conversation after all" Allie said walking past Stephanie to the house.

After a minute Stephanie followed behind her thinking of what she was going to say to Shane.

"I wished I knew you had went out to lunch. The food I ordered was horrible" Stephanie heard Shane say as she made into the living room.

"Be glad you didn't. Melanie was there" Stephanie said as he turned his attention from Linda to her.

"I'm glad I didn't then" Stephanie was glad he hadn't either but not because of Melanie. Paul probably wouldn't have acted the way he had towards her if so.

"I've never see her act the way she did toward you today Stephanie" Linda said taking a seat on the couch. Finally her mother was seeing how Melanie truly was and maybe she would stop being friendly toward her.

"I tried to tell you how she was mom" Stephanie replied as Shane sighed and reached into his pocket pulling his car keys out.

"Well since you guys already ate I'm going to out and find something else" Shane said starting to head for the door.

"Okay. Allie how about you and I head to the kitchen for a drink" Linda suggested getting up from the couch. Stephanie knew she was trying to give Shane and her space to talk privately.

"Sounds good" Allie replied looking over at Stephanie and giving her a reassuring look before heading to the kitchen.

Stephanie got up from her seat and quickly went to the front door before Shane had a chance to leave. She wanted answers to her questions and he wasn't getting away from it this time.

"Shane" Stephanie called as he opened the front door. He turned around to look at her as she made her way to him.

"Yeah?"

"I still need to talk to you"

"Oh yeah I forgot you had wanted to talk" Shane replied closing the front door. "So what is it you want to talk about?"

"I'm just going to come out and say it. I want to be with Paul" Stephanie said nervously as Shane sighed but it didn't seem mad about it which surprised her.

"I had a feeling that was what it was about considering Paul showed up to your date with Zach"

"Zach told you" Stephanie stated but of course he would. He was Shane's friend after all.

"Yeah and I've already talked to Paul about this"

"Why are you so against us being together Shane?"

"Paul didn't tell you?" Shane asked cocking his head to the side.

"He told me he didn't know" Stephanie replied feeling confused.

"Paul knows why. Doesn't that raise a red flag for you Steph?"

"What is the reason?" Stephanie asked ignoring his question. Shane sighed again and stood there for a moment like he was debating whether or not he should tell her.

"When Paul and I moved after my fight with dad I started becoming really good friends with this girl named Charlotte. It didn't take long for her and Paul to start talking and they started dating. They dated for maybe five or six months and one night I found out that Paul was cheating on her. When she found out about it I was the one she leaned on and it was hard to watch her go through that. I don't want to watch you go through that especially since you are my sister. I'm just trying to watch out for you Steph but I realize I also can't keep you from dating him either. I don't approve of it but that won't keep you two apart. Just be careful Steph" Shane said before opening the door and walking out leaving Stephanie feeling surprised and confused at the same time.


	8. Chapter 8

This chapter is a little shorter than most of them but I hope you enjoy it :)

* * *

Waiting was all Stephanie had done since Shane basically said her and Paul could date but her mind had been on dwelling on the reason why he hadn't wanted them to. She wasn't sure what to believe but it didn't sound like the Paul she knew to do something like that. But maybe she didn't know him as well as she though she did. Flipping through the tv channels and not finding anything on she turned the tv off and decided to call it a night. It didn't seem like Paul was going to show up after all, it was already almost eleven o'clock.

Stephanie got up from the couch and started to head upstairs to bed but as soon as she made it halfway up the staircase she heard soft knocking on the door. She turned back around and back down the stairs to open the door feeling nervous about how the night would end. Whatever they had going on between them might be over before it ever began.

"Hey I was hoping you were still up" Paul said after she opened the door. It must have been apparent that something was bothering her as the smile he had dropped and his face turned to concern. "What's wrong?"

"I talked to Shane today about us wanting to be together" Stephanie replied turning around and walking into the living room. After a moment she heard the door shut and then the sound of his footsteps coming from behind her.

"What did he say?" Paul asked and she turned around to face him.

"He said that Zach told him about you ruining our date- "

"Of course he did" Paul huffed sounding irritated.

"Shane told me that he can't keep us apart. He didn't approve but he told me to be careful" Stephanie said nervously biting her bottom lip.

"That's great" Paul replied with an excited smile.

"That's not all he told me…"

"What else was there?" Paul asked with a confused expression.

"He told me that you knew the reason why he didn't want us to be together from the beginning"

"I really don't- "

"So the name Charlotte doesn't ring any bells?" Stephanie asked as he looked away from her. Shit Shane was right and she felt her heart drop at the realization that maybe she didn't know him that well after all.

"I don't know what Shane told you but Charlotte and I dated off and on. It was a horrible relationship that I was stupid enough to keep going back to until one night I had enough. We got in a fight and I told her it was over and that time I meant it. I'm not sure if she believed me but I knew I was done and I ended up in a bar. I ended up really drunk and I slept with someone but our relationship would never be like that Steph"

"Are you saying you didn't cheat on her?" Stephanie asked feeling even more confused than earlier.

"No. Why would you think that? Is that what Shane told you?" Paul asked in disbelief and Stephanie nodded her head. "Well I didn't. Once Charlotte found out I was seeing other girls she was pissed but it was over and she had nothing to be pissed about. She must have told Shane I cheated on her"

"I don't understand why she would lie to Shane or why he didn't tell you this" Stephanie replied shrugging her shoulders. She really wanted to believe Paul but none of it was making sense for her.

"I don't know why Shane didn't ask me but it hurts to know that he would just believe her. Although I started to suspect he might of starting having feelings towards her that was more than just a friend. But Charlotte was one of those girls who wanted sympathy for every little thing in her life that went wrong. She wanted to come out looking like nothing was ever her fault so I guess she turned to Shane since they were pretty good friends"

"I don't know what to believe right now Paul" Stephanie said with a sigh.

"I've never lied to you before Steph" Paul replied staring into her eyes "Even with one of the hardest nights of my life five years ago when you tried to kiss me. I knew you would hate me for turning you down but I was honest with you"

Stephanie closed her eyes remembering that night. She still absolutely hated it but he was right, she had never caught him in a lie. They could finally be together without him acting weird because of Shane and she didn't want to throw that away after waiting for this. If she wanted to be with him then she was going to have to trust him unless he proved otherwise. She opened her eyes and put her doubts and fears behind her.

"Okay. I believe you" Stephanie replied and he smiled at her words but after a moment she was closing her eyes again as he walked towards her and leaned down kissing her.

"So I guess this means I can finally ask you on a date" Paul said after breaking the kiss.

"I guess it does" Stephanie replied with a small chuckle.

"Would you like to go to dinner with me tomorrow night?" Paul asked with a smile.

"Yes I would" Stephanie replied pulling him back down to her and kissing him.

* * *

The next morning after Stephanie woke up she headed downstairs for breakfast excited for later that night for her date with Paul. He hadn't stayed very long last night where it was so late and he didn't seem intent on finishing what they had started earlier that day. Maybe it was because of the whole talk about Charlotte, she wasn't really sure. The only thing she was concentrating on was her date with Paul tonight.

"Good morning. You are in a good mood" Linda said as she walked into the kitchen with a smile on her face.

"Good morning and I am" Stephanie replied grabbing a plate and sitting some of the food Linda must have prepared on her plate.

"Did Paul come by last night?" Linda asked and Stephanie blushed but nodded her head.

"We have a date tonight" Stephanie replied sitting down beside of Linda.

"Is this something else I need to keep to myself?"

"No. Shane didn't really give us his blessing yesterday but he said he couldn't stop it from happening"

"I'm glad he finally was able to see that. Paul is perfect for you and finally after all of these years you two can be together" Linda said before taking a sip of her orange juice.

"Well I'm the only one who has waited years"

"If you say so Stephanie" Linda replied as Stephanie took a bite of her food. She didn't believe that especially after thinking about the night he rejected her. Her mother apparently wanted to see what she wanted back then.

"I'm starving" Stephanie heard Shane call and heard his footsteps approaching the kitchen.

"Don't you ever eat at home?" Stephanie asked turning to look at the entrance to the kitchen.

"Sometimes" Shane replied coming into the kitchen and Paul came in behind him. Stephanie smiled at him before he started heading her direction and sat down beside of her.

"Hey" Paul greeted her and kissed her on the lips.

"I just lost my appetite" Stephanie heard Shane say and she blushed. She didn't think she would get used to her family seeing her public display of affection. Hell she was surprised Paul even kissed her in front of Shane.

"Don't worry you'll find it again in a minute" Paul joked looking over to Shane.

"I won't if I hang around here" Shane replied as Paul chuckled. Stephanie looked over to see Shane pick his plate up and head for the living room.

"That was surprising" Stephanie said to Paul as Linda evacuated her seat probably to give them some privacy.

"I don't think he still is completely on board with us but I talked to him last night about Charlotte and he seemed to believe me"

"I'm glad you were able to sort everything out with him"

"Well I'm just glad I don't have to hide the way I feel about you anymore" Paul replied taking her hand and lacing his fingers in between hers.

"Me too and I can't wait for our date tonight. Maybe this one won't get interrupted" Stephanie replied making a remark about how he interrupted her last date.

"That won't happen because I'm on this date with you so I can't possibly barge in and interrupt it" Paul said with a smirk.

"Zach was so pissed" Stephanie laughed even though she had been quite irritated that night too. It seemed like it had been ages ago even though it had only been last week.

"I was too. He knew how I felt about you and he shouldn't have tried to take…" Paul trailed off before looking at the floor as if he was embarrassed. Wait was he? She had never seen him get embarrassed by anything.

"Take what?" Stephanie asked and he shook his head "come on. Tell me"

"My girl" Paul said quietly and she smiled. Now she knew for sure he had been jealous of Zach and she smiled because even when they weren't together he considered her to be his girl.

"Before I come in there are you two doing anything?" Stephanie heard Shane call.

"No you're fine" Paul called back to him and Shane peeked into the kitchen to make sure.

"This is going to be hard" Shane said walking to the sink and putting his dish down.

"How?"

"Because she's going to be over at the apartment a lot more and you two will be all over each other and I don't want to witness that" Shane replied opening the refrigerator.

"Well get over it or stay in you room" Stephanie said sticking her tongue out at him.

"Or you could just stay home" Shane retorted making a face at her.

"How about if we do anything we will just go to my room" Paul suggested and Shane looked like he was going to be sick.

"I don't want to know. I just don't want to see or hear it" Shane replied before taking a seat on the other side of Stephanie. "Are you almost ready to go?"

"Whenever you are" Paul replied and Stephanie felt disappointed he was leaving so soon.

"Already?" Stephanie asked as he rubbed the back of her hand he was still holding.

"Yeah I know but we'll be seeing each other later tonight" Paul reminded her before kissing her and Shane made gagging noises.

"I'm ready now" Shane said as they broke their kiss. She looked over at Shane and narrowed her eyes at him but he ignored her and got up out of his seat.

"I'll see you later tonight babe" Paul said and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

"Bye" Stephanie replied watching him and Shane leave the kitchen. She sighed and turned back to her half eaten food that was probably cold by now. It didn't matter though because her appetite had dimensioned since Paul had been here. Stephanie got up and dumped her food in the trash and placed her plate in the sink not really knowing what else to do to keep herself occupied until later that night.

The day seemed to drag by for her as she mostly sat and watched tv and called Allie to fill her in on everything that had happened since it was too late to call her last night. When seven o'clock hit Stephanie was already dressed and ready for her date. Now all she was waiting on was Paul and she found herself pacing the living room feeling nervous that maybe he had changed his mind or that he was going to stand her up.

"Stephanie honey there is going to be a hole in the floor" Linda said with a light laugh. Thank God her mom had kept her company as she waited for Paul because she was playing out the worse scenarios in her head.

"I'm so nervous"

"I can tell but don't worry he will be here and you will have fun" Just then the doorbell rang and her heart started racing even more. She couldn't remember ever being this nervous about a date before but then again Paul wasn't just some random guy who had asked her out. "Just relax and take a breath before you pass out"

"I'm trying" Stephanie replied as she headed toward the front door with Linda behind her and took a breath before opening the door.

"You look beautiful" Paul said as soon as she opened the door and he ran his eyes over her body.

"You look great too" Stephanie replied looking at him. He had his hair tied back and was wearing a white polo shirt and black slacks.

"Are you ready?"

"I've been waiting all day for this" Stephanie replied stepping out on the porch.

"Have fun you two" Linda said before closing the door behind them. They headed toward his car and he opened her door for her when they reached it. She slid into her seat and he closed the door behind her and she felt herself begin to calm down a little now that he was here.

"I'm actually kind of surprised you agreed to go on this date" Paul said after getting into the car and starting it.

"Why?" Stephanie asked looking at him curiously.

"Well besides the stuff you thought about the whole Charlotte thing I didn't think you would want to after the way I have acted since Shane told me I couldn't date you"

"I've waited a long time for this honestly"

"How long?" Paul asked glancing over at her and she felt embarrassed. God she hoped she didn't sound pathetic.

"The year I turned fifteen was when my crush on you began" Stephanie replied looking out the window. She was pretty sure her face was red.

"So the night you tried to kiss me you had felt that way about me for almost a year?"

"Yeah I know. It's pathetic" Stephanie replied shaking her head. This was one conversation she didn't see happening tonight.

"It's not pathetic Steph" Paul assured her "So does that mean you have had feelings for me for five years?"

"Well after the night you rejected me I was upset and embarrassed and then after that I was sad because I never seen you again after you and Shane moved. I moved on with my life and went off to college and dated a couple of guys and then I came home not expecting to see you but once I did all those feeling came back. So I'm not sure if I buried those feelings or they never really went away" Stephanie explained and looked over to see his reaction. She had never been so open with any other guy the way she was being with him but she felt closer to Paul than any other guy she had dated.

"So you have waited awhile for this. I hope I don't disappoint you"

"I don't think that's possible" Stephanie replied shaking her head "What about you? How did you feel in those five years of not seeing me?"

"Honestly? I was miserable"

"I'm sure you were" Stephanie chuckled not believing him.

"I really was. Not being around you or seeing you was hard for me" Paul replied and she looked over to see his facial expression was serious.

"Then why didn't you come around?"

"Because I hurt you and I was pretty sure you hated me. There was nothing I could do to change that and I didn't want to hurt you more than you already were" It surprised her that he felt that way. All this time she thought he hadn't come back around because she tried to kiss him and he wanted to make it clear he didn't feel the same way.

"And what about when you saw me again?" Stephanie asked and he laughed.

"You do not want to know all the perverted things that went through my head"

"You are messing with me" Stephanie replied with a chuckle.

"No I'm really not but when I saw you again I couldn't believe it was you" Paul replied as they turned into the parking lot of her favorite restaurant. Even though they had just eaten there yesterday she was excited. She was pretty sure she would never get tired of this place.

As soon as Paul parked the car he got out and came over to her side to open her door for her. After they went and were seated at a table Stephanie didn't even need to look at a menu to know what she was ordering. So she sat and watched Paul as he looked over the menu trying to decide what he wanted.

"So you never told me"

"Told you what?" Paul asked confused.

"How long you have liked me. You have mentioned a couple of times that you have liked me for a while and I've spilled my guts tonight and completely embarrassed myself. So I think it's only fair you do the same" Stephanie watched him put down and look her in the eyes.

"Okay sounds fair. I've always cared about you about Steph and I think I might have had a small crush on you back then but there was nothing I could do. I actually remember on your eighteenth birthday of almost coming to your birthday party with Shane but then I decided against it because I thought you had probably forgot about me and Shane had been talking about how you were seeing someone anyway" After his admission she sat there feeling surprised, her mother had been right after all. As she sat there in silence the waiter came over to take their order and after the waiter left Stephanie turned her attention back to him.

"I had no idea" Stephanie said still feeling surprised.

"I was hoping you would get the hint that night I told you the reasons why nothing could happen. I never said I didn't feel the same just that it couldn't happen then and I wasn't sure at the time if it would ever happen just because I knew Shane would not like it"

"So you had feelings for me for a long time too?" Stephanie asked and she couldn't help the smile that formed on her face. At least she felt less embarrassed and pathetic about telling him everything she had earlier.

"Yeah" Paul replied and took her hand in his and kissed it. Without a doubt this was the best date she had been on even though it just had started. Paul seemed to surprise her every time she was around him and she was really liking that about him.


	9. Chapter 9

Stephanie sat her glass of water down on the table as she heard her phone beep. Picking up she instantly smiled at the text message she had received, it was a text from Paul. They had been dating for a week now.

"What is that smile about?" Allie asked as Stephanie texted him back quickly.

"Nothing" Stephanie replied innocently putting her phone back down on the table. Allie had invited her over to her house for lunch and now they were sitting and talking.

"Are you texting Paul?"

"No" Stephanie lied trying to avoid Allie's gaze so she couldn't tell she was lying but she caught a glimpse of Allie shaking her head disapprovingly.

"I thought you said I would have your full attention today"

"You do" Stephanie reassured her before picking up her glass of water and taking a sip.

"I've not heard from you all week because Paul has had your attention. I'm glad you two are finally together and I don't mean to seem like a needy friend but I've missed talking to you" Allie replied making Stephanie feel bad that she had been neglecting her friend.

"I'm sorry. You have my full attention; I promise" Stephanie said looking at Allie.

"So I haven't heard from you since your first date with him. How is Shane doing with you two dating?"

"He is doing a lot better with it but he still doesn't really like it because I'm spending more time at their apartment. He's caught us making out quite a bit and it makes him uncomfortable"

"I actually seen Shane the other day. I was getting ready for my shift and he was sitting at a table in the back. I went over him to say hello and he was kind of jumpy, he kept looking over his shoulder every couple of seconds. After he saw me he didn't stay very long. He's never acted like that towards me before and it was kind of weird"

"That is weird" Stephanie agreed wondering what was going on with him. Even though she had been around him a lot more she hadn't really talked to him unless it was them arguing over something. Maybe she had been in her own little world with Paul too much lately. Usually she was more observant and would have realized something was up with him.

"Maybe he was just stressed or something" Allie shrugged picking her cellphone up.

"I thought you wanted my full attention but you are going to text someone"

"Hey I was just texting Daniel about this beautiful place I found. I'm thinking about having the wedding there"

"Have you picked a date?" Stephanie asked as Allie put her phone away.

"No but I have been trying to look at places and dresses just to get an idea of what I would even want. Maybe you should go with me this week to help me look at wedding dresses. Who knows maybe you and Paul will be headed down the aisle next" Allie replied and Stephanie almost choked on the drink of water she had taken. It was way too soon to even think of something like that. Her and Paul had only been dating a week and she still had other things in her future to think about.

"Very funny. I've still got to think about graduating college"

"Have you two discussed anything about when you go back to college?" Allie asked and Stephanie shook her head.

"It hasn't come up. Besides we've only been seeing each other for a week and I'm not going back to college for a while. Who knows if we will still even be together by then"

"You can't think like that Steph"

"It's realistic Allie. I hope we are still together but you never know"

"Don't you think you two still need to talk about it?"

"We will but right now I'm just enjoying the time I have with him" Stephanie said with a shrug wanting to get off the subject.

"Okay. So do you want to go with me later this week to look at wedding dresses for me?"

"Of course I will" Stephanie replied with a smile.

* * *

A couple of hours later Stephanie pulled into her driveway and shut the car off as her cellphone begin to ring. Grabbing her purse and pulling out the cellphone she smiled when she seen it was Paul.

"Hello" Stephanie answered getting out of the car and walking to her house.

"Hey. What are you up to?"

"I just got home from Allie's. She wanted to have lunch with me" Stephanie replied stepping into her house and started heading for her room.

"Are you free tonight?"

"Hmm. I don't know. I'll have to check my schedule" Stephanie joked.

"Well if you are that busy…." Paul trailed off.

"I'm free" Stephanie replied laying down on her bed and stretching out.

"Good because Shane won't be at the apartment tonight. I thought you could come over and I could cook you dinner"

"You can cook?" Stephanie asked skeptically.

"Yes but if you don't want me to- "

"I want you to" Stephanie interrupted quickly and Paul chuckled.

"Does about seven work for you?"

"Yeah that sounds great"

"Okay I need to go pick up a few things and I'll see you about seven then"

"Okay see you soon" Stephanie replied before ending the call. There was still so much she had to learn about him and she couldn't wait to see him later. It also may give her a chance to catch up with Shane before he left, hopefully. Ever since Allie had brought up how she had seen him Stephanie had been wondering what was going on with him. It gave her a bad feeling that she just couldn't shake and it had her a little worried.

Stephanie tried pushing the thoughts away and got up from the bed grabbing her laundry basket to do some laundry and take a shower before tonight. On her way downstairs as she headed towards the laundry room she heard talking coming from the kitchen. When she had come in earlier she hadn't seen her parent's car in the driveway and she had assumed she was home alone. She ventured towards the kitchen curious to see who was in the kitchen she stopped at the kitchen door when she heard her mother's voice. It sounded like her voice was breaking up as if she were crying.

"I'm not sure Tamara" Stephanie heard Linda say but she didn't hear Tamara's response. "I'm going to try and figure it out tonight"

Stephanie peeked into the kitchen to see her mother's back turned towards her and she had the phone to her ear. She wondered what they were talking about since she wasn't able to hear anything Tamara was saying.

"You don't need to worry. I'll be fine" Linda said her voice breaking a little. This made Stephanie worry even more and she couldn't wait for her mother to get off the phone. She needed to find out what was going on now.

"Mom" Stephanie said softly stepping into the kitchen and Linda turned around to look at her. Her eyes were red and puffy.

"I'm going to have to call you back Tamara" Linda said into the phone as Stephanie came closer to her mother and sat her laundry basket down on the floor.

"What's wrong?" Stephanie asked as Linda hung up the phone and wiped some of the tears from her eyes and gave her a small smile.

"Nothing you need to worry about dear" Linda replied getting up from her seat and went over to the refrigerator.

"Mom, please talk to me"

"What would you like for dinner?" Linda asked ignoring Stephanie's plea.

"Paul asked me to come over for dinner at his place. Mom you can talk to me" Stephanie replied watching her mom close the door to the refrigerator wondering how to get her mom to talk to her.

"That sounds nice" Linda said getting a wine glass out of the cabinets still ignoring her.

"Mom- "

"Steph, I'm fine. Like I said it's nothing to worry about. Your father and I just got into a little spat but we will work it out"

"I've never seen you get this upset over a spat. Let me call Paul and cancel our dinner and we will have dinner together" Stephanie said taking her cellphone out of her pocket.

"Don't you dare" Linda replied giving her a stern look "you go spend time with Paul and have fun. I'm probably just going to go out to dinner with Tamara."

"I'm really worried about you mom"

"There is no reason to be Stephanie. You shouldn't have to worry about what problem your father and I are having. Now I'm going to go call Tamara back and drink a glass of wine. You go get ready for tonight okay?"

"Okay" Stephanie replied knowing her mother wasn't going to say anything more. She was stubborn as Vince was just not as bad but Stephanie knew when to let it go. Stephanie watched her mother walk out of the kitchen as she wondered what in the hell was going on with her family.

After she got out of the shower Stephanie headed to her mom's room to check on her but when she opened the door Linda wasn't in there. Thinking maybe she had gone back downstairs Stephanie headed downstairs but she didn't see Linda in the living room or the kitchen but she noticed a note on the refrigerator. It was from Linda letting her know she had left to go out with Tamara. Stephanie sighed and looked at the clock noticing it was only six. She had a little bit before her dinner with Paul but honestly she didn't want to sit around at the house and wait. With everyone acting so weird it was stressing her out and she didn't want to sit and stress more about it. So with that Stephanie headed back upstairs to put on some makeup and fix her hair hoping her dinner with Paul would help her relax.

* * *

Arriving at Shane and Paul's apartment she knocked on the door. It didn't take long before the door opened and she was greeted by Paul's smiling face.

"Hey you're early"

"Yeah I hope it's okay" Stephanie said as Paul stepped aside so she could enter the apartment.

"Of course it is" Paul replied and shut the door behind her. "I'm in the process of making dinner"

"It smells really good"

"I hope you like it" Paul said as Stephanie followed him into the kitchen. She sat down at the kitchen table and noticed that plates were already set with glasses and a bottle of wine. "You can go ahead and have a glass if you want"

Stephanie grabbed the bottle of wine and opened it and poured a glass. With everything that was on her mind she would probably drink most of the bottle if Paul let her.

"When is Stephanie supposed to be here?" Stephanie heard Shane call from the living room.

"I'm already here" Stephanie called back before standing up to head that way. She needed to talk to him before he left to find out what was going on with him.

"Great" Shane said sarcastically and Stephanie rolled her eyes at him as she entered the living room.

"So…what have you been up to lately?" Stephanie asked watching him type away on his phone.

"Nothing much really. Just work, eat and sleep"

"I uh heard you were at the restaurant where Allie works not too long ago"

"Yeah I was getting something to eat" Shane replied putting his phone away. He apparently wasn't going to provide any more information than that.

"Allie said she came over to say hello and you acted weird towards her" She didn't really want to mention Allie had said anything but Shane was giving her nothing to go on.

"I was probably stressed about work" Shane said with a shrug.

"Was that all it was?" Stephanie asked trying to get him to open up to her.

"Yeah I'm sure. What is with the twenty questions?" Shane asked eyeing her with a curious look.

"Nothing" Stephanie replied "Have you talked to mom today?"

"No. Why is something wrong?" Shane asked with a panicked expression.

"Everything is fine. Or at least that is what she said. I found her crying and talking to Melanie's mom on the phone"

"Did you ask her what was going on?"

"Yeah but she wouldn't explain. The only thing she said was that her and dad got into a spat"

"Oh" Shane said as she heard Shane's phone beep.

"That's all you have to say?" Stephanie asked feeling confused.

"Well if that is all she would say then maybe that is really all it was" Shane replied before turning his attention back on his phone.

"But- "

"I've got to go. Don't worry about it Steph. I'm sure everything is fine" Shane said before making his way to the door and leaving. It felt like everyone was trying to hide something from her as if she couldn't handle the truth and it was becoming very frustrating. She wasn't a kid anymore and whatever was going on she was going to get to the bottom of it. Even if she didn't like the outcome but right now she was going to try and focus on her dinner with Paul.

"Is everything okay?" Stephanie heard Paul ask and she turned around to look at him.

"Yeah. I think it is"

"What do you mean?"

"My family is just acting weird today. Has Shane said anything to you?" Stephanie asked and Paul shook his head.

"Shane really hasn't had much to say lately. I'm not sure if it's because he is mad at me or he just hasn't had anything to talk about"

"Or maybe it's because I've been around too much lately that he hasn't had a chance to talk to you" Stephanie replied before taking a drink of her wine.

"Whatever it is I'm sure it's not because of you" Paul said giving her a kiss on the lips. "Now come and eat"

"Okay" Stephanie replied following him back into the kitchen and sitting down at the table.

After dinner they were through with dinner Paul cleaned up and even though Stephanie offered to help Paul refused. Not really knowing what to do Stephanie headed to the living room and got comfortable on the couch and turned the tv on. Paul was able to take her mind off of everything and she was feeling a lot more relaxed than she was earlier or maybe it was the wine she consumed. Either way she was just happy that she had Paul to keep her sane tonight. Flipping through the channels Stephanie found a romantic comedy and settled on it as she waited for Paul to finish up in the kitchen.

"Of course you choose to watch something like this" Stephanie heard Paul say as he came into the living room. She had kind of zoned out into her own little world while watching the movie that she hadn't realized he had finished up in the kitchen.

"Are you going to try and take the remote from me again?" Stephanie asked arching her brow.

"Maybe if it leads to what it did last time" Paul replied with a smirk making her blush at the memory. He sat down next to her on the couch and acted like he was going to try and snatch the remote away from her but she moved it away from him quickly.

"Nope you're not getting it" Stephanie said shaking her head.

"Fine you can watch your chick flick" Paul replied resting his arm on the back of the couch behind her. It kind of surprised her that he gave up so easily especially from his comment just a couple of minutes ago. It was starting to make her doubt that he wanted her that way considering he hadn't really tried to move past anything but making out. If he didn't want her that way though why would he keep asking her out? Not long ago it seemed he tried to make sexual advances towards her or maybe it was her imagination? She wanted it to go further considering how he had made her sexually frustrated for weeks now but she didn't want to be the first one to make the move.

"So what time will Shane be home?" Stephanie asked crossing her legs.

"I have no idea. He didn't really say much except that he was going out" Paul replied looking at the tv and made a face "can this movie get any cheesier?"

"It's better than the scary movies you watch"

"You just don't like them because you get scared easily"

"I do not" Stephanie replied looking over at him.

"Do you seriously not remember the night me, you and Shane watched that scary movie?" Paul asked and Stephanie nodded her head.

"For different reasons then you do though" Stephanie replied with a blush and turned her attention back to the movie.

"Actually I hardly remember any of that movie because I was pretty occupied with you" Paul said grabbing her arm and pulling her over on to his lap. Stephanie giggled and put her arms around his neck as he wrapped his arms around her before her lips met his. She deepened the kiss as she felt his hands slip underneath her shirt and unclasp her bra. Then his hands moved around to cup her breast and she moaned but it was cut short when she heard the front door open. At the moment she really hated Shane for interrupting them yet again.

"Oh God" Shane said looking away and making gagging noises. "Give me a minute and I'll leave. Then you two can go back to doing… I don't think I can even say it" Stephanie sighed frustrated now that the mood between them was probably ruined. She narrowed her eyes at Shane but he had his hand up to the side of his face blocking them out as he headed to his bedroom.

"Come on let's go" Paul said motioning for her to get up.

"Where are we going?" Stephanie replied standing up.

"To my room where we won't be interrupted again" Paul replied standing up and grabbed her hand leading her to his bedroom. Once they were inside he closed and locked the door behind them.


	10. Chapter 10

Sorry it took so long to update and its shorter than usual! I had a hard time starting it cause nothing I wrote sounded good to me but here you go! I hope you enjoy it

* * *

Stephanie trailed her fingers lightly over his chest watching it rise and fall with each breath he took as he slept peacefully. She hadn't been awake for very long, she had just been laying there thinking about last night and how perfect it had been for her. It had been what she had wanted for a long time now and she still couldn't quite believe that it had finally happened. Hell part of her was surprised he wanted to be with her at all.

"What are you smiling about?" Stephanie looked up at him upon hearing his voice. She hadn't even realized that she had been smiling or that he had woken up.

"Just thinking"

"About?" Paul asked curiously.

"Oh just about this guy I've been seeing"

"Well he's a very lucky guy" Paul replied pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"Or I'm the lucky one"

"No I'm pretty sure he's the lucky one" Paul said pulling her to him and kissing her before they were interrupted by a knock on the bedroom door. "Just a minute"

Stephanie groaned wishing for once Shane would just leave them alone. Why did he always have to have such horrible timing? Getting up from the bed, she found her clothes and slipped them on quickly as Paul pulled a pair of pants on and headed to open the bedroom door.

"Hey I was wondering if you wanted to get some breakfast before we had to go to work"

"Uh sure. Can Steph come?" Paul asked as she watched Shane's eyes land on her and he made a face as if he were disgusted.

"Did you...nevermind I don't want to know" Shane replied with a shudder. "I was actually hoping that you and I could have breakfast, alone. I need to talk to you about something"

"Give me a minute to get fully dressed" Paul said and Shane nodded his head before walking away from the door. Paul turned around and headed back over to her with an apologetic look on his face "I'm sorry"

"It's fine" Stephanie replied with a shrug "besides I need to go home and check on my mom. I forgot to call her and tell her I was staying here so I hope she's not up worrying about me"

"Well maybe we can get together later. Unless now you got what you wanted from me and you're done with me" Paul said with a sigh pulling out a shirt from his closet and then looked back over at her with a smirk on his face.

"Damn you caught me" Stephanie replied rolling her eyes, unable to hide her smile.

"Hmm. Well who knows maybe our paths will cross again in another five years and then we can do it all over again" Paul replied pulling his shirt on and going over to her.

"Maybe" Stephanie said shrugging her shoulder before she burst out giggling. After her giggling subsided he pulled her close and kissed her.

"Didn't you two do that enough last night?" Shane asked in a disgusted tone of voice as they broke from their kiss and looked over at him. "Are you ready Paul?"

"Yeah just one more second"

"Hurry it up" Shane replied annoyed before walking off again.

"Your brother is such a pain in the ass sometimes" Paul said shaking his head. "So do you really want to come over later today?"

"Of course I do"

"Good" Paul replied with a smile "I'll call you when I get off from work"

"Okay" Stephanie said as he leaned down and kissed her once again.

* * *

Stephanie walked into her house and shut the front door quietly because she didn't want to wake Linda if she were still asleep. Although she could be gone with Vince somewhere considering his car wasn't in the driveway but as soon she made into the living room and dropped her purse on the couch she heard the sink in the kitchen turn on. So she made her way to the kitchen hoping her mother was doing better than yesterday and that she hadn't worried about her too much.

"Good morning" Linda said as Stephanie walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning. I'm sorry I didn't call last night" Stephanie apologized but Linda shook her head and smiled. Well it seemed like she was in a better mood at least.

"No reason to apologize. You're an adult now" Linda replied with a laugh "besides I'm pretty sure you spent the night with Paul"

"Yeah" Stephanie said feeling a blush rise to her cheeks. "So where is dad?"

"Oh he had some work he had to get done" Linda replied her smile vanishing from her face. It made Stephanie feel uneasy considering she was pretty sure Linda had been crying over Vince yesterday. Maybe she didn't need to mention Vince to her mother at the moment. She really wanted some answers but she also didn't want to make Linda start crying all over again.

"Have you talked to Shane?" Stephanie asked changing the subject.

"Not this morning but I talked to him yesterday" Maybe Shane had finally showed some concern and called to check on her after she told him Linda had been crying.

"Has he been acting weird to you at all?"

"What do you mean?"

"It just seems like he's always on his phone lately and rushing off. I've hardly even spoken to him" Stephanie replied sitting down.

"I think he might be seeing someone" Linda said opening one of the cabinets and pulling out two cups. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Yes please" Stephanie replied with a smile. "Has he mentioned a name or anything?"

"No but he's been in a better mood lately and spacing off with a smile on his face" That was surprising to hear especially since he did not seem to be in a good mood when she was around him.

"I wonder why he hasn't said anything" Stephanie said as Linda handed her a cup of coffee and sat down next to her.

"They might just be taking it slow but I think we will meet her eventually" Linda replied before taking a drink of her coffee. The more Stephanie thought about what Allie had said about his behavior the more he seemed to make a little more sense. Something still seemed off to her though. "How are you and Paul doing?"

"Great" Stephanie said smiling at just the mention of his name.

"You are really crazy about him aren't you?" Linda asked as Stephanie nodded her head. "It's so good to see you and Shane happy"

"Mom" Stephanie said softly as Linda wiped at her eyes and turned her head quickly. Something was definitely going on other than just a spat with Vince and she didn't understand why her mom wouldn't just come out and tell her. "Is-"

"Do you want to join Tamara and I for breakfast?" Linda asked clearing her throat and interrupting Stephanie quickly. "Just to warn you Melanie may be tagging along"

Stephanie was kind of torn if she should go or not because she wanted to make sure everything was okay with Linda but she already trying to avoid questions. Then at the same time she didn't want anything to do with Melanie and with Linda being around Tamara it gave her a better opportunity to avoid talking about things she didn't want to talk about.

"I think I'll pass. Maybe you and I could have lunch later?" Stephanie asked hopeful.

"Yes we can do that" Linda replied with a nod of her head. "I'll be back shortly"

"Okay" Stephanie said as Linda got up from her seat next to Stephanie and exited the kitchen leaving her half cup of coffee on the counter. One way or another she was going to figure out what was going on and why it seemed like everyone was trying to hide things from her. Right now though she was going to finish off her coffee and get a shower.

A couple of hours later Stephanie was sitting on the couch watching tv when she heard the front door open and close. Hopefully her mom hadn't invited Tamara to come inside because she didn't want to deal with Melanie if she had went to breakfast with them. But she was surprised when Vince was the one to walk into the living room.

"Hey dad" Stephanie greeted him.

"Hey sweetheart. I didn't think you would be here"

"I do live here dad. Where else would I be?" Stephanie asked with a small chuckle.

"I thought maybe you would be out, that's all. Is your mother here?" Vince asked making his way to the kitchen.

"No she went out to breakfast with Tamara" Stephanie replied getting up from the couch and following Vince to the kitchen. "She should be back soon because we are going out to lunch. Do you want to come with us?"

"I uh actually have to get back to work. I just needed to come home and pick up some stuff" Vince replied pulling a bottle of water from the refrigerator and headed back out of the kitchen. It really seemed as if he were trying to avoid her and it was starting to getting annoying how everyone was trying to ignore her or get away from her quickly.

"Dad" Stephanie called at Vince as she followed him back out of the kitchen.

"Steph I really have to hurry but we can talk...soon. Okay?" Vince didn't even give her a chance to answer before he made his way upstairs. If he was such in a hurry she didn't understand why he was going upstairs instead of leaving but what bugged her the most was how he told her they would talk soon instead of later. Was he not going to be home later tonight? Her thoughts were interrupted by a vibration in the pocket of her jeans and she fished out her phone to see Linda's name on the screen.

"Hello"

"Steph I wanted to call you and tell you that I'm going to need to cancel on lunch. Maybe we can reschedule for dinner"

"But-"

"I've got to go but I'll see you later" Stephanie heard rustling and then the call ended. She hadn't even had the chance to tell Linda she had plans with Paul later. Letting out a sigh and putting her cellphone back in her pocket as she heard Vince start coming back down the stairs with suitcases in his hands. When he reached the bottom of the stairs he didn't look back over at her or say anything. He just made his way out of the house leaving Stephanie feeling confused, hurt and alone.

* * *

Staring at the salad on the table before her as she raked her fork through it not really feeling all that hungry. It really seemed as if her family was falling apart and they wouldn't tell her anything. She wasn't sure if Shane knew anything at all either and the only reason she knew something was going on was because she lived there with her parents. If Shane did know anything well he was acting weird around her and didn't seem to want her around so he wasn't going to tell her.

"Steph can you please stop doing that with your food? Your fork keeps scraping the bottom of the plate and it's a very irritating noise" Allie said breaking her out of her thoughts. Since Linda bailed on her for lunch she had decided to go out with her best friend.

"Sorry" Stephanie said laying her fork down.

"Do you want something else to go with your salad? You have barely even touched it" Allie asked as Stephanie shook her head. "You have to eat"

"I will later"

"Did you eat anything this morning?"

"No"

"Stephanie!" Allie shook her head disapprovingly.

"I wasn't hungry. I was caught up in everything that happened last night with Paul. I was on cloud nine until everything with my parents happened" Stephanie replied picking up her fork again and taking a couple of bites of her salad to get Allie off her back about eating.

"And how was your night with Paul?" Allie asked and she felt the heat rise to her cheeks.

"It was amazing" Stephanie replied smiling.

"That's all I get?" Allie asked seeming disappointed.

"Yes. I would like to keep the details to myself" Stephanie said and Allie stuck her tongue out at her.

"So I was thinking maybe you and Paul would want to go a double date with me and Daniel? I need to get know Paul better since he is your boyfriend so why not do a double date?"

"Are you sure you want to do that? Daniel might get jealous if you sit and drool over Paul again" Stephanie laughed as Allie narrowed her eyes at her.

"I did not drool"

"Sure you didn't" Stephanie chuckled "but I need to see if Paul would be interested in doing a double date"

"Okay. I hope we can do it because I miss hanging out with you and if we do this then I can hang out with you while getting to know Paul. Hell maybe Daniel and him will hit it off and become friends"

"Maybe" Stephanie nodded her head in agreement. She had to admit that her spirits were lifted a little just talking about Paul but her family drama was still bothering her. She honestly wished time would go by faster so she could be with Paul. He was the only one that seemed to make her forget about everything.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Just thinking about Paul and all of this stuff with my family" Stephanie replied taking a drink of her lemonade.

"I wish I could shed some light on your family situation but unfortunately I can't. It does seem weird they are acting this way though. I think Shane is just acting weird because you're dating his best friend and maybe he feels like a third wheel now"

"That does make sense but I don't understand why he treats me as if I'm someone he doesn't like"

"It's probably just a older sibling thing. I mean you two haven't spent that much time together in awhile so it's going to take some adjusting. Plus how would you feel if you had to watch Shane make out with someone a lot?" Allie asked and she scrunched her face up in disgust just at the thought.

"Are you taking his side?"

"No. I'm just trying to help you understand from Shane's perspective so maybe you two can sort things out"

"Well we can't really sort it out if he won't give me a chance to talk to him. He's always running off like my parents or he's always on his phone"

"Then text him" Allie said shrugging her shoulders.

"I'd rather talk to him face to face. Who knows if he wouldn't even answer my texts?" Stephanie asked more to herself than to Allie. Shane did get on her nerves a lot but she really did miss talking and hanging out with him. Yes they fought sometimes but they used to have a close bond. Or at least she felt like they did.

"Just keep trying Steph. That's the only advice I can give you and I'm sure if there is anything major going on with your parents they will let you know" Allie replied giving her a small smile. Stephanie returned her smile before taking another sip of her drink hoping that Allie was right. She was going to take Allie's advice though and just keep trying to talk to Shane because she was really going to need her brother if something big was going on with their parents.

Stephanie checked her makeup and hair in the mirror once more before stepping out of the car. She had spent the rest of her afternoon hanging out with Allie, she hadn't felt like going back to an empty house and worrying about everything. Now she was walking into the building of Shane and Paul's apartment because he had text her not long ago asking her if she wanted to come over. Of course she said yes and let him know she would be there shortly that she was hanging out with Allie and she would be going to work soon. She couldn't but feel excited to see Paul and impatient as the elevator doors closed and took her to the floor she needed. When the elevator doors opened she hurried down the hallway to his door with a smile on her face. After she arrived and knocked on the door it didn't take long before he opened the door.

"He-" She cut him off by wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his and kissing him. "Did you miss me?"

"Yes" Stephanie replied as he chuckled and she let go of him so they could move out of the doorway. Once she was inside of the apartment she noticed the smell of food and it smelled heavenly. Her stomach rumbled reminding her that she hadn't ate properly all day.

"Hungry?" Paul asked and she nodded her head "I ordered us some food"

"Great because I'm starving" Stephanie replied following Paul's lead to the kitchen. She watched as he grabbed some plates down from the cabinet to put their food on. "So is Shane not here?"

"No it's just us right now"

"What did he want to talk about this morning?" Stephanie asked walking over and taking a seat at the kitchen table.

"He wanted to make sure everything was okay between me and him because we haven't really been hanging out as much. He also told me that he doesn't have an issue with us being together anymore as long as I don't hurt you" Paul replied sitting down a plate of food in front of her before taking his own seat.

"Wow he actually cares about me" Stephanie said before taking a bite of her pasta. It tasted as good as it smelled and it was a hell of a lot better than the salad from earlier.

"Of course he cares. You're his sister"

"It just seems like he doesn't want anything to do with me lately"

"It's not that. He's just been trying to give us time alone and to make sure he doesn't have to watch us be all over each other" Paul replied with a chuckle. "Anyway how was your day?"

"This morning was great until I left here and went home. After that it wasn't so good"

"I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really I'd rather not think about it right now" besides she was feeling better being here with him. She didn't want that ruined, all she wanted was to spend time with him and enjoy her dinner.

As Stephanie took another bite of her food she heard the door of the apartment open and she could hear Shane's voice and then a giggle from someone else. Stephanie turned around in her chair as footsteps approached the kitchen and her eyes landed immediately on the woman who was with Shane. She was beautiful and honestly she was surprised this woman was even hanging out with her brother. The woman had blonde wavy hair that came a little past her shoulders, she looked like she was an athletic type and she was about the same height as Stephanie.

"Sorry guys I didn't mean to interrupt anything. I didn't know if you would be on a date or not" Shane said breaking the silence that fallen in the room.

"It's okay. Who's your friend?" Stephanie asked impatiently wanting to be introduced.

"Oh sorry. Steph this is Charlotte and Charlotte this is my sister Stephanie" Shane replied as Stephanie stared at her for a moment. Was this the same Charlotte that was Paul's ex? Shane really wouldn't date her right? But when Stephanie turned to look at Paul the look on his face was evident that it definitely was the same Charlotte. It felt like her heart had plummeted to her stomach. Apparently today was definitely not her day.


	11. Chapter 11

(I'm sorry it took so long for this chapter. I was having a hard time with it and I don't feel like it's my best but I hope you enjoy it!)

* * *

Stephanie stared at the movie playing on the tv but she wasn't really paying attention anymore. After dinner was over Shane had suggested that they all sit down and watch a movie. Feeling pretty uncomfortable with the silence since meeting Charlotte, Stephanie had agreed to watch a movie. But through the first half of the movie Stephanie started to become annoyed because it seemed every five seconds Charlotte was giggling over something Shane had whispered in her ear. Now she knew how Shane had felt the night he was trying to watch a movie but her and Paul kept making noise. So at this point she really had no idea what the movie was about or what was going on.

"Shane can I talk to you?" Stephanie asked turning her head to look at him.

"Yeah go ahead" Shane replied turning his attention from Charlotte to her.

"I meant in private" Stephanie said getting up from the couch and headed to the door of the apartment without giving him a chance to respond. She had tried to bite her tongue and just try to be okay with what was going on but she couldn't do it anymore. The more she sat there and thought about Shane and Charlotte, the more she wondered if Shane had done this on purpose. She didn't understand how Shane told Paul he was okay with them dating now if he was going to go and date Paul's ex.

"Why did you come out here?" Shane asked coming out of the apartment and shutting the door behind them.

"Because I didn't want anyone to be able to overhear" like Charlotte but she didn't want to say that to him.

"Okay you're acting weird"

"I wonder why" Stephanie snapped before walking a little down the hallway from the apartment door. "So are you doing this on purpose?"

"Doing what?" Shane asked with a confused look.

"Dating Charlotte. I thought you were okay with me and Paul dating"

"I am"

"Oh really?" Stephanie asked arching her eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Yes. Me wanting to date Charlotte has nothing to do with you and Paul at all. Not everything is about you Stephanie" Shane replied rolling his eyes at her.

"I didn't say everything was about me"

"I had started to develop feelings for Charlotte before her and Paul started dating. At the time she was more interested in him so I let it go and settled for being her friend. We started talking again here lately and I realized I still have feelings for her"

"Seriously? It's been a couple of years since you stopped talking or seeing each other and you still have feelings for her?"

"You still have feelings for Paul and you two didn't talk or see each for five years" Shane pointed out. She couldn't help but feel annoyed that he was right but part of her was still skeptical that Shane wasn't doing this because of her and Paul. "Now if you will excuse me I want to get back to Charlotte."

Stephanie just stood there watching him as he walked back up to the apartment and went inside. She honestly didn't know if she really wanted to go back or not. Charlotte was already annoying her with the giggling and besides that she just felt uncomfortable being around her. If she was honest part of her felt insecure about herself after seeing the girl Paul used to date and she didn't feel like she measured up. She wasn't used to feeling this way at all usually she was confident.

"Hey" she heard Paul say and she looked up to see him coming out of the apartment. She had been lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't heard the apartment door open.

"Hey" Stephanie replied with a small smile as he made his way down to her.

"Were you thinking about rejoining us?" Paul asked as she shrugged and uncrossed her arms letting them fall to her side. He seemed to be unaffected about Shane and Charlotte being together. She had noticed that when Shane was introducing her and Charlotte that Paul had been surprised but after that it was like nothing had even happened. Was she the only one that was uncomfortable with it?

"Did you know about them?"

"I had no idea"

"And you don't care?"

"The only thing I care about is the woman standing in front of me" Paul replied gently grabbing her arm and pulling her against him. Then he wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. "Do you care they are together?"

"It's a little uncomfortable" Stephanie admitted "but it's because I don't think he's okay with us being together like he says he is."

"Because he is dating Charlotte?" Paul asked and Stephanie nodded her head before laying against his chest. "Well that is pretty messed up if that is why he is with her but he should probably know that I don't care"

"Don't tell him I said anything. I already asked him if that was the reason and he denied it but I'm still not so sure" it wasn't the only reason she was uncomfortable with them being together but she didn't want to voice her insecurities to Paul.

"I won't say anything to him. So do you want to go back in there and finish the movie?"

"I wasn't really watching it anyway because they were being annoying. I have no idea what is going on" Stephanie replied as they broke away from each other and he slid his hand into hers before they started walking back to the door of the apartment.

"Then we'll put a new movie on. It wasn't like they were really watching it anyway either and I'll tell them to shut up" Paul said before opening the door and stepping back into the apartment. Once they were inside they headed back to the couch and Paul grabbed the remote from Shane before sitting down.

"Hey- "

"You weren't watching it anyway" Paul said flipping through the channels to look for something new to watch.

"Neither were you. You two were outside doing God knows what" Shane replied pointing his finger at them.

"We weren't doing anything. That will happen later in my room" Paul smirked and Stephanie watched as Shane made a face and pretended to gag. "You know it almost happened once right here on this couch, okay maybe twice."

"That's disgusting and way too much information that I did not need to know" Shane replied getting up from the couch and held out his hand to Charlotte. "You want to go my room?"

"Sure" Charlotte replied getting up and taking his hand.

"We're buying a new couch" Shane said as him and Charlotte walked to his room. Stephanie giggled even though she was a little embarrassed and laid her head down on Paul's shoulder as he laughed.

"Nothing actually got to happen on it" Paul replied still laughing but Shane didn't say anything and after a couple of seconds they heard his door shut. Paul then handed her the remote to the tv. "Well we got rid of them. So you can put on anything you want for us to watch."

After flipping through the channels on the tv she finally found something to watch and then she leaned up against Paul. He wrapped his arm around her and she got lost in the movie trying to forget about her bad day. She still didn't know what to make of Shane and Charlotte being together but if he was doing it to cause trouble she was going to be pissed. But right now she wasn't going to worry about it because hopefully everything would work itself out. All she wanted to do right now was be with Paul she just hoped tomorrow would be better because she couldn't take another bad day.

* * *

The next morning Stephanie woke up feeling hungry so she headed downstairs to grab some breakfast and see if her mom was home. After spending time with Paul last night she headed home because he had to be up for work and she had wanted to check on Linda. When she had got home though nobody had been there so she had just decided to call it a night and go to bed. It was unlike Linda to be gone at the time of the night she was and she was becoming a little more worried about her. But there really wasn't much she could do if Linda refused to talk to her about it. Maybe she could try to get Linda to actually talk to her today though, if she was home.

Walking into the kitchen she immediately spotted Linda sitting and drinking a cup of what she assumed was coffee and reading something in the newspaper.

"Good morning" Stephanie greeted her as she went to grab a bowl and pour herself some cereal.

"Good morning" Linda replied with a smile. "How was your night?"

"It was good" Stephanie replied not wanting to go into detail because she didn't want to tell Linda she had met Shane's new girlfriend. She just didn't want to get into that topic right now. "Where were you last night?"

"Tamara and I went out for some drinks. I didn't realize how late we stayed out until I got home so I didn't mean to worry you"

"It's fine. So are you going to be out with Tamara again today?" Stephanie asked grabbing a bowl and a box of cereal.

"No actually I have a meeting with your father soon" Linda replied surprising Stephanie. He was just here yesterday and in a rush to leave while Linda had been acting weird yesterday. Now they suddenly are meeting up with each other which was confusing Stephanie. She didn't really have a chance to ask or say anything about though because someone had rung the doorbell. "I'll get that. You just sit down and eat."

Stephanie grabbed her bowl of cereal and sat down to eat. It wasn't long before her mother made her way back to the kitchen with Allie following behind her.

"Good morning. Do you have any plans today?" Allie asked taking a seat beside of her.

"No but I'm not sure if Paul will want to do anything tonight after gets off from work" Stephanie replied taking a bite of her cereal.

"Well today is Friday and by some miracle I actually got today off. I also got paid so I thought I would do something productive and go shopping. Do you want to come with me?"

"Of course. Just let me finish eating breakfast first"

"I thought maybe we could stop and I could look at some wedding dresses too" Allie said and Stephanie nodded her head.

"Well you girls have fun. I have to get to that meeting but I'm sure I'll see you girls later today. Don't shop too hard" Linda said with a laugh.

"Oh never" Allie replied with a laugh of her own as Linda headed out of the kitchen. Stephanie waited a couple of minutes just eating her cereal and making sure her mother wasn't going to come back for any reason. She didn't really want her to overhear the conversation she was about to have with Allie.

"So I met Shane's girlfriend last night" Stephanie said after finishing her bite of food.

"He has a girlfriend? You don't seem to thrilled about it"

"That's because it's Paul's ex Charlotte" Stephanie replied looking over to Allie who had a surprised look on her face. She had told Allie about Charlotte back when she had found about why Shane didn't want her and Paul to date. It looked like Allie was about as surprised as she was too last night.

"You have got to be kidding. Is this because you and Paul started dating because I'm confused" Allie said shaking her head.

"I asked him that last night and he denied it but I don't know if I believe him. He said he had feelings for Charlotte before her and Paul started dating but he settled for being her friend. Apparently he started talking to her again for a while now and realized he still had feelings for her"

"And Paul doesn't care that he is dating her?"

"He said he didn't but I'm uncomfortable with it. After seeing her I don't feel so confident about myself anymore. I mean you should see her she looks like a freaking model and next to her I probably look like some kind of troll" Stephanie replied feeling better that she could get this off her chest to someone. "I'm kind of afraid that with her being back around Paul might realize how much better he could do or maybe would want to be with her again, I don't know."

"Steph that's ridiculous. You do not look like a troll, you are a very beautiful woman and Paul is stupid if he thinks he could do better than you. Paul and her broke up for a reason so I don't think he's going to go trying to get back with her"

"You have to say that because you're my best friend" Stephanie said shaking her head.

"I know that telling you this doesn't make you feel it but I'm telling the truth Steph. I understand the way you feel though but you know what we are going to try and change that" Allie replied with a smile.

"If you say so, let's get going. Maybe shopping will make me feel better."

A little while later Stephanie was looking at wedding dresses with Allie and she had found some that had looked absolutely beautiful in her opinion. Allie on the other hand hadn't found any that she liked so far. Stephanie looked over at her friend after hearing her scoff and giggled at the look on her face. She had been doing this ever so often, when she really didn't like the dress she would scoff and others she would sigh at. Stephanie could tell she was getting discouraged about finding the right dress but she couldn't help but giggle at her with the faces she would make.

"Do I really have to wear a dress? I mean can't I just wear jeans or something?" Allie asked scrunching her nose up. "I was so excited about this until I got in here and now I realized how much exactly I hate dresses and some of these are just awful."

"It's your wedding day. You can wear whatever you want but I thought maybe you would want to wear a wedding dress" Stephanie replied with a shrug.

"I think I'm just going to go commando. How do you feel about a naked wedding?" Allie joked with a laugh and Stephanie just smiled and shook her head.

"I don't think Daniel would like that or your families" Stephanie replied as Allie sighed and continued looking at the dresses. "It's not like you have to pick something right now anyway."

With looking at these wedding dresses Stephanie couldn't help but picture what kind of dress she would like and where it would be. The flowers, decorations and the cake. It was something she had thought of but that would be way down the line for her. She wanted to be realistic about her future with Paul but she couldn't help to have hope they would still be together and maybe this would be her one day getting married to him.

"What are you thinking about?" Allie asked breaking her from her thoughts.

"Nothing" Stephanie smiled shyly.

"Sure what is that smile about then?" Allie asked and Stephanie shook her head not wanting to tell her because she knew Allie would tease her. Luckily she was saved from answering when she felt her phone vibrate so she got it out of her pocket and checked it. She smiled at seeing it was a text from Paul.

 _Good afternoon beautiful_

 _Good afternoon handsome, working hard?_ She texted back and it wasn't long before he responded.

 _Not really. I'm busy missing my beautiful girlfriend._ Stephanie couldn't help the huge smile that broke across her face. They had been dating but this was the first time he had called her his girlfriend.

 _You can see me later tonight :)_

 _How about I see you for lunch here in a couple of minutes?_

 _Allie is with me. Do you mind if she tags along?_

 _Not at all as long as I can see you ;)_

"Paul wants to have lunch with me. Do you want to go? If not that's fine. We'll just continue looking at dresses" Stephanie said looking over in Allie's direction.

"Yes let's go because these dresses are starting to depress me" Allie replied walking over in Stephanie's direction as Stephanie texted Paul back to let him know where to meet them. After she was done Allie grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the store as Stephanie laughed.

Once they reached the restaurant they were meeting Paul at they went inside and found a table to sit at. After waiting a few minutes Stephanie kept turning around to look at the door waiting for Paul to walk through.

"Steph he'll be here soon" Allie said with a laugh. "You're starting to scare people that are coming in."

"Haha funny" Stephanie replied sticking her tongue out at her.

"There he is" Allie said nodding her head in his direction and Stephanie turned around to see him heading towards them. He smiled at her as they locked eyes.

"Hey" Paul greeted her once he reached the table and leaned down to kiss her before sitting down beside of her. "Hey Allie."

"Hey Paul. It's about time you got here because Stephanie was starting to freak people out as they entered the restaurant"

"Aww were you excited to see me?" Paul asked as Stephanie blushed.

"I just wanted to make sure you could see us if you came in" Stephanie replied before shooting Allie a dirty look and Allie chuckled as she opened her menu. "How has your day been?"

"Pretty boring up until now. How was yours?" Paul asked putting his arm on the back of her chair.

"It was pretty fun. Allie and I were out shopping"

"Are you feeling better today?" Paul asked and Stephanie nodded her head. "Good."

"So Paul I was talking to Steph yesterday about maybe you two going on a double date with me and my fiancé soon. I'm pretty sure she didn't ask you so do you think you would be interested?" Stephanie knew she had forgot to ask him yesterday but to be fair she had been shocked by Shane bringing Charlotte to the apartment.

"I would be up for it if that is what Stephanie wants to do"

"Good then I'll Steph know when Daniel and I are off on the same day and we'll figure out something to do. I'll be right back though" Allie said getting up from her chair and walking off to the restrooms. Once Allie was gone Paul turned his attention to Stephanie and leaned over and captured her mouth with his. Stephanie let a small moan escape as she felt his tongue slide against hers and after a few seconds she felt disappointment as the kiss ended. She knew there wasn't anything else they could do though considering they were in a public place.

"I was thinking that maybe tonight I could just come over to your place. When I left this morning Charlotte was still there and I know her and Shane were annoying you last night. If I come to your place nobody will annoy us"

"My parents might be there, or at least my mom will be"

"Your parents usually leave us alone though" Paul replied with a chuckle. It was true though at least with her mom, she always wondered off and let them be. She had never been around her dad with Paul though but she wasn't even really for certain he was going to be there just because Linda had met up with him this morning.

"My house it is then" Stephanie said giving him a quick kiss on the lips as Allie sat back down at the table with them. At least she wouldn't have to be around Charlotte tonight because she didn't want to feel insecure again. After talking with Allie that morning and Allie helped her pick out some new outfits to help boost her confidence, she was feeling a little more confident.

Not long after Allie had sat back down with them the waitress came over and took their orders. They sat and chatted happily until their food arrived and then they sat in silence as they ate. As soon as they finished eating though they paid their bill and left because Paul had to get back to work considering his lunch break was almost over.

"I'll see you later tonight" Paul said as they walked hand in hand out of the restaurant with Allie following behind them.

"Yeah" Stephanie replied and nodded her head before he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. "I guess I'm going to go do some more shopping with Allie."

"Have fun because I know I won't be" Paul replied with a chuckle and let go of her hand "I'll see you later though. Bye baby."

"Bye" Stephanie said as she stood there and watched him walk away.

"Stephanie and Paul sitting in a tree- "

"Are we back in elementary school or something?" Stephanie asked with a laugh turning around to face Allie and soon as she did she spotted Vince not too far away from her and Allie coming out of some building. She was going to walk the distance to him to say hello when she noticed some redhead that looked like maybe she was in her mid-thirties come out behind him. Stephanie stayed rooted to the spot she was in and watched them talk and laugh about something before Vince pulled her against him and kissed her.

At this point Stephanie could feel her blood boil and it took everything in her not to go over and slap the woman or her father. No wonder her mother had been crying and Stephanie knew something was going on and now she knew exactly what it was. There was no more of her mother hiding the truth from her. Stephanie stood there for what seemed like forever feeling tears sting her eyes from the anger until her father turned in her direction and his face seemed to go pale. She shook her head in disgust and turned around walking in the opposite direction of her father. She didn't want anything to do with him and she wasn't about to stand there and listen to him try to lie to her.


	12. Chapter 12

Sorry it's been a while since I updated my stories I've just been really busy! Hopefully I will have time to write again and I'll be working on my story Changes so it will be updated next. This chapter is short and it probably isn't the best but it puts the story where it needs to go next so hopefully no more writer's block with this story. Anyway I hope you enjoy :)

* * *

After rushing off from catching her father kissing another woman Stephanie decided to head back home. The rest of her shopping trip had been ruined and now all she wanted to do was go home and try to push the images out of her head. She was furious at her father for doing that to her mother and part of her was angry that he hadn't even tried coming after her when she walked away from him. It wouldn't have done him any good really because she wouldn't have believed anything he had to say to her but it still hurt that he seemed to not give a shit.

Stephanie stared out the window of the car and let out a sigh as they passed by houses on her street. Allie had offered to drive them back to Stephanie's house and after that she had been pretty quiet. That was the great thing about Allie though she knew when to give her space and she would come to her when she was ready. So far Stephanie had calmed down a lot from earlier but she still wasn't ready to talk to Allie. First she wanted to talk to Linda about it that is if her mother would talk to her about it. So far Linda had avoided any topic related to Vince but that wasn't going to get in her way of at least trying. It seemed like she was in luck for trying to talk to Linda about it because Stephanie immediately noticed her mother's car in the driveway once they began to reach Stephanie's house. Once Allie pulled into the driveway and parked the car Stephanie got out and started for the house.

She didn't even wait for Allie as she entered the house and headed into the living room where she could hear her mother's voice.

"Mom I need to talk to you" Stephanie said coming into the living room and looked at Linda who was sitting on the couch next to another person who had blonde hair.

"Stephanie come in and sit down I'm just showing Charlotte some pictures of Shane when he was younger" Linda replied not even turning to look at her but Charlotte did. She gave Stephanie a small smile and Stephanie just stood there feeling frozen to the spot.

"When did you two…meet?" Stephanie asked feeling confused. She had just met Charlotte yesterday and now here she was with Linda looking like they've know each other for a long time.

"We just met an hour or two ago. Shane and Charlotte dropped by here and I decided we should all get to know each other so I sent Shane to get some groceries so I could cook dinner. Don't be rude Stephanie introduce yourself" Linda replied finally looking over at her.

"We met last night actually" Stephanie replied finally moving her feet and walked over to a chair beside of the couch.

"How come you didn't tell me?"

"You were in a hurry this morning to meet dad. How did that go by the way?" Stephanie asked sitting down in her chair and crossed her legs.

"It was fine" Linda replied flipping through the book of photographs she had on her lap and pointing to a picture on the page and Charlotte turned her attention back to the pictures.

"Gee thanks for leaving me with all this stuff Steph" Allie said coming into the living room carrying bags from their shopping trip.

"I'm sorry Allie I wasn't even thinking" Stephanie uncrossed her legs and got up from the chair to take some of the bags from Allie.

"Allie come over and meet Shane's girlfriend Charlotte" Linda said looking at Allie with a smile and Allie looked over at Stephanie like she was asking her if she should. Stephanie just gave her a shrug before taking the bags she had got from Allie upstairs to her bedroom.

This was not what she was expecting and Paul would be off of work soon and would be coming here to her house. One of the reasons he was coming here was so Shane and Charlotte wouldn't annoy her. She could always text him to let him know they were here so they could go back to his apartment instead. But with the way her day was going Shane and Charlotte would probably just end up at the apartment not long after her and Paul did. Stephanie dropped her shopping bags on her bed and then flopped down on her bed beside of them and laid back.

"So that's Charlotte huh?" Stephanie heard Allie ask as she came into Stephanie's room.

"Yeah" Stephanie replied not even trying to hide the annoyed tone in her voice. After a few seconds Stephanie felt Allie sit down beside of her on the bed.

"You really have nothing to worry about you know"

"What did you mean?"

"Charlotte doesn't seem to be all that great to me. You are one hundred times better looking than her" Allie replied and Stephanie just scoffed. "I'm being serious Steph. Why are you letting this girl get to you? You've always be confident about yourself."

"I don't know" Stephanie replied propping herself up slightly on her elbows and looked at Allie. "Maybe it's because I've never met any of ex boyfriend's ex-girlfriends before. Or maybe it's because it's Paul's ex. The guy who I had a crush on for years and all he ever really seen me as was little McMahon, Shane's little sister. Then he doesn't talk to me for five years and dates girls that look like Charlotte."

"Apparently he finds you pretty damn beautiful and he better because you are. I'm not very good at this stuff Steph but Paul is with **you** now and he admitted he cared about you back then from what you've told me. I'm sure you are way more important to him than Charlotte ever was. At least you don't look constipated" Allie shrugged and Stephanie laughed.

"What does that have to do with this?"

"Charlotte seriously looked like she was constipated or something" Allie replied as Stephanie laid back down on the bed still laughing. "But seriously Steph. You are a beautiful person on the inside and out. There is no reason for you to feel bad about yourself around her."

"Thanks Allie"

"Do you feel better?"

"Better than I was"

"Girls come back downstairs with us and have a glass of wine" Stephanie heard Linda say and she really hoped Linda hadn't heard any of their conversation.

"We'll be right there Linda" Allie replied as Stephanie raised up to a sitting position on the bed and looked at Allie.

"Do you think she heard any of our conversation?"

"No I'm sure she would have said something along the lines of stop being rude or something" Allie said getting up from the bed and Stephanie followed along behind her.

"Let's hope so."

After a little while of talking with Linda and Charlotte Allie ended up leaving which left Stephanie by herself listening to Linda and Charlotte as she poured a second glass of wine. The little conversation with Allie had helped her a little bit and she was feeling a little more comfortable but she still felt awkward around Charlotte. She wished she could just shake all of her insecurities away but that wasn't going to happen that quickly.

"Did you get lost babe?" Charlotte asked as Stephanie heard footsteps coming into the kitchen behind her and she turned to see Shane coming in with quite a lot of groceries.

"No I just picked some more stuff up than I intended" Shane replied sitting the bags on the counter and then giving Charlotte a peck on the lips. Stephanie felt her stomach churn at the sight. This definitely felt like some sort of payback for her and Paul doing this in front of Shane all the time.

"You didn't have to do that Shane" Linda replied going over to the bags and pulling out the food to start putting it away.

"Well the refrigerator was pretty bare mom and I just wanted to help you out so you had one less thing to worry about"

"What do you mean by that?" Stephanie asked sitting down her glass of wine and looked at Shane who just gave a shrug.

"It just means apparently mom has been busy and I wanted to help her out"

"So it has nothing to do with dad and- "

"No" Shane replied sharply cutting her off from finishing her sentence which was probably a good thing. She didn't want to end up hurting her mother right now but she was starting to get the feeling Shane had lied to her about not knowing what was going on with Vince and Linda. Especially with the way he cut her off and was now giving her a look that told her to drop the subject.

"Hey guys" Stephanie heard Paul say and turned around to see him walking over to her. She couldn't help but smile, it was just the effect he had on her. It made her forget about everything around her at the moment.

"Hey" Stephanie replied standing up and going over to him before he even made it over to where she had been sitting. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him not caring who was watching.

"Miss me?" Paul asked in a low voice so only she could hear.

"More than you know" Stephanie replied before giving him another kiss. She really wanted to talk to him about what she had witnessed with her dad today but at the same time she just wanted to forget about it for the moment.

"Get a room" Stephanie heard Shane mutter and she rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry we will later" Paul replied looking over at Shane and then gave her another kiss before they went over to sit down with Shane and Charlotte.

Stephanie sat down and grabbed her glass of wine to take another drink when she noticed out of the corner of her eye that it looked like Charlotte was staring at her. She turned to look at her but Charlotte had her attention on Shane and now she was starting to wonder if she was seeing things.

"How was the rest of your shopping trip?" Paul asked her and she turned her attention on him.

"Didn't get to finish it but I'm sure Allie and I will go again sometime" Stephanie took a big drink of her wine hoping Paul wouldn't ask any more about it. It wasn't something she wanted to discuss with Linda being able to overhear because her mom actually seemed to be in a good mood. Which here lately seemed to be a rare thing and she could hold off on interrogating Linda about what she found out for a little while. The only thing right now that mattered was to see her mother happy again. "How was the rest of your day?"

"Torture. Or at least it felt like it because I kept counting down the hours until I could see you" Paul said leaning closer to her "I was kind of hoping it would be just me and you though."

"Me too. I feel like that's not going to happen anytime soon though"

"It will. I'll make sure of it" Paul whispered into her ear causing her heart to race and her cheeks to flush. She couldn't wait for it to just be them with no interruptions or surprises.

"How does that sound Stephanie?" She heard her mother ask her but she had been so focused on Paul that she hadn't even heard anything Linda had been saying.

"What?" Stephanie asked directing her attention on Linda.

"That we go do a little shopping together tomorrow. Unless you don't want to go since you went today"

"I'd never turn down shopping mom" Stephanie replied with a chuckle.

"Great we'll have fun"

"Sounds great mom" Stephanie smiled at her before turning her attention back to Paul as he took a hold of her hand and laced his fingers through hers. Finding out about her dad and going through all of this stuff with her family had her really stressed out but when she was with Paul it somehow made things better. At least she had him by her side through all of her family problems.

* * *

"Steph you're being quiet" Linda said as Stephanie stared out of the window in the backseat of the car. She hadn't been up very long since Linda came knocking on her bedroom door that morning informing her it was time to get up and leave for shopping. Honestly all she wanted to do was stay cuddled up next to Paul who had spent the night and just sleep in and if she would have known Linda wanted to go shopping so early she would have declined.

"I just need coffee" Stephanie replied stifling a yawn.

"Coffee does sound good" Charlotte said who was in the passenger seat. She looked back at Stephanie and gave her a smile and once Charlotte had stopped looking at her she rolled her eyes. Last night when Linda had asked Stephanie if she wanted to go shopping she had been so wrapped up in Paul that she hadn't realized her mother had asked Charlotte to come along. So now here she was stuck in the backseat while Linda and Charlotte chatted happily up front.

"We'll get some soon" Linda replied as they pulled into the parking lot and Linda turned the car off.

Linda and Charlotte continued talking as they walked inside the building with Stephanie trailing behind them not really in the mood for talking. Maybe if it were Allie she was here with it would be different but talking with Linda was hard at the moment because she found it hard to not mention what she saw with Vince yesterday. Then she didn't really know Charlotte and she was still feeling pretty insecure around her. She just hoped that maybe after a while of shopping she would feel better and maybe be able to join their conversation. In a way though she just hoped this whole shopping trip went by pretty fast because Paul had made plans for them later and promised it would just be them with no interruptions.

"Stephanie are you sure you're okay?" Linda asked as her and Charlotte had gone straight to picking out clothes that liked and planned to try on.

"Yeah I'm fine mom. I'm just trying to get woke up more" Stephanie replied following their lead and started picking some stuff out.

"So Stephanie how long have you and Paul been dating?" Charlotte asked making Stephanie look over at her.

"Not long" Stephanie replied feeling uncomfortable about answering questions about Paul to his ex.

"Those two have been pretty inseparable since Steph came back home" Linda said as Stephanie took her clothes and started heading to the dressing rooms to try them on. She was feeling even more uncomfortable with the conversation and wanted to get away from it. It made her wonder why in the hell Charlotte even cared. Shouldn't she be asking stuff about Shane instead of Paul?

"Steph?" Stephanie heard Charlotte coming up behind her just as she made it to the dressing rooms.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable"

"Don't worry about it" Stephanie replied turning around and forcing a small smile.

"It's just…" Charlotte trailed off and look down at the floor before looking back at her "Shane is my boyfriend and I care about him so much. I have for quite a while and I know how close you and Shane are and how he is protective of you. It makes me want to look out for you too especially since I hope to be around for a long time."

"I don't understand- "

"You should be careful with Paul. I don't want to see you go through what I went through. I know it's none of my business but if I could help make sure you don't get hurt and cheated on like I did then I feel like I should say something."

"Listen I don't think you can say Paul cheated on you when he was with a girl after you two had already broken up" Stephanie replied trying to keep her voice calm and steady.

"Is that what he told you?" Charlotte asked and shook her head "Paul and I fought a lot. We were on and off throughout the relationship but that was because Paul would go out to parties and get drunk. I would call him when he forgot about a date we had later because he was too busy partying and some random girl would answer his phone saying he 'was' busy at the moment along with some giggling. That would happen a lot or I would call him in the morning to have that happen. That is why we broke up and fought so much and I was stupid enough to take him back when he told me it wouldn't happen again. Just take it from someone who has been through it and take my advice when I say please be careful."

Charlotte didn't even give her chance to respond and turned around and walked away. Stephanie just stood there shocked and silent anyway. After a minute she tried to shake away the negative thoughts and feelings away. She really had no reason to believe Charlotte and Paul had not given her a reason not to trust him so instead of overanalyzing everything Stephanie finally headed to a dressing room to try on her clothes. But even though she had tried not let the things Charlotte said get to her she couldn't help but replay the words in her head. It made her wonder if Charlotte was lying or if Paul just hadn't been completely honest with her.


	13. Chapter 13

Thank you for the reviews! I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story. I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

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Stephanie spent the rest of the shopping trip quiet and in her own little world trying to not let what Charlotte said affect her but she wasn't able to push it away. Thankfully Charlotte hadn't tried saying anything else to her but she also kept dodging her and keeping space between them. The only time she wasn't able to do either one of those was when her, Linda and Charlotte went to eat and get the coffee she had been craving since she woke up. Charlotte hadn't dared to say anything about Paul in front of Linda though and Stephanie tried making polite small talk so her mom wouldn't notice something was wrong. Though Linda probably would have never noticed anyway because she was so engrossed with what Charlotte was talking about that it started to make her feel like a third wheel. So when they had finally made it back home Stephanie was relieved and headed straight upstairs to her room putting distance between her and Charlotte once again.

She wasn't sure how much time Charlotte and Shane would be spending there now that it looked like her mom and Charlotte were getting close. But at least she wouldn't have to deal with it tonight because she would be getting her alone time with Paul like he promised her yesterday. She wished he was there now but he had text her while she was shopping saying he was going to head home for a shower and to get something to eat and he would see her later. She could feel butterflies in her stomach from excitement at the thought of being alone with him later but some of it was because she was also anxious. There was a little nagging voice in the back of her mind asking what if Charlotte was right about Paul? What if Paul would cheat on her like her father cheated on her mother? She wasn't sure she could handle that; hell she was barely handling the fact that her father would do something like that. The thought of her father cheating on her mother hadn't ever really crossed her mind. So who was to say Paul couldn't be the same way or do the same thing to her?

Stephanie groaned in frustration falling down on her bed and tried to push the thoughts away because she knew it would only stress her out. It would put doubts there that she didn't want to have because if she couldn't trust Paul then the relationship wasn't going to go anywhere. He hadn't given her a reason not to trust him and most of his time had been spent with her anyway. He wasn't like the same guy Charlotte had went out with either it seemed, she hadn't seen him get drunk or party. She just needed to relax and try not to let Charlotte do this to her because for all she knew maybe that was Charlotte's intentions to begin with. The only thing she couldn't understand is why Charlotte even cared? She was dating her brother now and Paul and Charlotte's relationship had ended a long time ago.

"Steph?" Stephanie heard Linda's muffled voice through her bedroom door.

"Yeah" Stephanie called back.

"We thought we would go out for dinner tonight. Do you want to join us?"

"No I've got plans with Paul."

"Well he can join us too" Linda replied and Stephanie rolled her eyes. There was no way she was going to spend any more time with Charlotte and she wasn't even sure why her mother wanted her to come along. She pretty much ignored her during their shopping trip earlier.

"He's already got plans made for just me and him mom."

"Okay then. Well we won't be leaving for a while so come down and join in the conversation if you want" Linda replied but Stephanie didn't answer and after a few seconds she could hear footsteps heading away from her door. She wondered if this was how it was going to be for her from now on. Her always trying to find an escape from Charlotte but then she realized that wouldn't work and then it would show Charlotte that she had got to her. No she couldn't let that happen, she would just have to suck it up and try to be polite to her as possible. She wasn't going to let her know that she didn't care what Charlotte said about Paul and that it didn't affect her. Even though it had affected her a little bit but she didn't have to know that or try to be around her anymore today.

As she laid there staring at the ceiling she heard another knock on the door and then the sound of her door being opened. She propped herself up on the bed with her elbows to see Allie closing the door behind her and she breathed a sigh of relief and laid back down on the bed.

"So can I live with you for a couple of days?" Allie asked and Stephanie felt the bed move when Allie plopped down on the end of the bed.

"Did something happen between you and Daniel?" Stephanie asked pulling herself back up and into a seated position on the bed.

"No" Allie sighed in frustration "but his mother is in town and she wants to stay with us. I can't stand the woman and I know I shouldn't say that because she is going to be my future mother in law but I just **really** can't stand her. The feeling is mutual on both sides though. She didn't seem too happy about mine and Daniel's engagement."

"What makes you think she doesn't like you?"

"The way she gives me backhanded compliments and her snotty tone of voice when she speaks to me. It's like I'm not good enough for Daniel to her. Oh well it's his decision so she's stuck dealing with me being in his life forever" Allie shrugged and Stephanie chuckled.

"I wish I could be more like you and just not care what someone else thinks or says" Stephanie replied crossing her legs. "You know you can stay here if you want but being here really isn't all that great either."

"It's probably better than being stuck with her for the next couple of days" Allie replied picking at her nails. "But I was joking about living here for the next couple of days, kind of. Daniel wouldn't be too happy about it. He would probably get jealous."

"Why?" Stephanie asked feeling confused as Allie continued picking at her nails before looking up at her with a sheepish look on her face that Stephanie had never seen her give before.

"I've never told you this before and don't get mad that I didn't but I used to have this tiny crush on Shane when you and I were in high school" Allie replied ducking her head back down and stared at her nails.

"Ewww" Stephanie scrunched her face up in disgust. "Why didn't you tell me? How did I not see this?"

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you teasing me about it especially when he was around. Which wasn't very often because of where you said Vince and him got in that fight."

"How does Daniel know about it?"

"Well before Daniel and I actually started dating we would hang out with each other as friends and there was this one day Shane came down to see you. Me and Daniel were here hanging out with you and well Daniel had started liking me as more than a friend and he noticed when I would stare at Shane" Allie replied and Stephanie could see Allie's face flush with embarrassment.

"I... I just don't know how I didn't catch onto that" Stephanie shook her head still feeling confused.

"Probably because you hardly got to spend time with him that you didn't really pay attention to small things like that because you wanted to spend as much time as possible with him."

"Do you still- "

"No I do not still have a crush on him" Allie laughed "It was a long time ago and it didn't last very long. You have to promise me that you won't tell Shane about this either."

"I promise" Stephanie replied with a nod of her head. "I don't know why Daniel would get jealous though. It's not like Shane lives here anymore and would constantly be around."

"I don't know if he would but he does know Shane still comes around here. Daniel's jealously has gotten a lot better though."

"What helped him with his jealously?"

"I'm not really sure but I think it helped when I said yes to his proposal."

"That doesn't really help me" Stephanie sighed hoping for some advice on her jealously and insecurities towards Charlotte.

"Sorry. Still not liking Charlotte very much I take it."

"Nope. Especially after today" Stephanie replied and Allie arched an eyebrow at her. "I went shopping with her and my mom today. While we were shopping she came up to me and started telling me that as Shane's sister she was worried for me and didn't want to see me get hurt by Paul. That when they were dating he was constantly cheating on her."

"Don't even believe that for a second Steph" Allie said pointing her finger at her. "We already know she lied once so this is probably just another one."

"My question is why in the hell does she even care?"

"Who knows? It sounds to me like she is jealous but I don't see why. She's dating Shane now but I wouldn't pay any attention to her Steph. Paul hasn't given you any reason to even believe one single thing she has said" Allie replied and Stephanie nodded her head. It was easier said than done unfortunately.

"I honestly wished that Shane would have never started dating her. I wish that Shane and I were close like we used to be but with her around I doubt that will happen again. I just miss when I was close to my family and everything seemed more simple" Stephanie said pushing her hair behind her ears. "Anyway let's talk about something less depressive and less stressful."

Allie stayed and talked to her after that and helped her get ready for her date with Paul and left shortly before Paul came to pick her up. Stephanie let Linda know she was leaving and then she met Paul on the porch wanting to get away as quickly as possible. Plus, Allie had helped her calm down and push away the doubts she was having and now she was just ready for a night of her and him by themselves.

"So I thought we would go see a movie of your choice, then dinner and then maybe get a hotel room for the night" Paul said as they made their way to his car.

"That sounds great" Stephanie replied giving him a smile as he opened her door for her. Once she was in and he shut the door behind her she put on her seatbelt while he got in.

"How was shopping today?" Paul asked starting the car and backing out of the driveway.

"It was good" Stephanie replied not wanting to get into what Charlotte had said to her. She didn't want that to ruin the night Paul had planned out for them and she wasn't sure if she should bring it up to him. She didn't want him thinking that she believed Charlotte and couldn't trust him. Even when that little nagging voice in the back of her mind kept bugging her. "So has a lot of things changed for you in the last five years?"

"Like what?" Paul asked glancing over at her with a confused expression.

"Well back before you and Shane moved you guys used to drink and go to parties a lot. Has that changed?" Stephanie asked trying to be nonchalant.

"I have a drink occasionally but no parties. The last party I was at was the one Shane and I had at our apartment the night you and I first kissed. Why?"

"No reason I was just curious" Stephanie shrugged and she felt somewhat relieved knowing he wasn't the kind of guy Charlotte described or at least he wasn't anymore.

"I don't believe that" Paul replied and shook his head slightly. He was quiet for a few minutes before she heard him sigh. "Did Charlotte say something to you?"

"What makes you think that?"

"That you're asking about my past suddenly" Paul replied glancing back over at her but she remained quiet. "Steph?"

"Can we just not talk about it tonight? I don't want anything ruining our night."

"So she did" Paul scoffed and she watched him grip the steering wheel tighter.

"Let's just forget about it right now, okay?"

"Fine we won't talk about it tonight but we will talk about it. I don't want you thinking something that isn't true because when she says something its usually her version that's not hardly true at all. Just the other day she was telling Shane something about this fight she had with one of her friends that Shane knew when her and I were dating. Shane was wondering why they weren't friends anymore and she completely spun the story to make herself look like the victim. It wasn't true at all and I know because I was there when the fight happened."

"Did you tell Shane?"

"There is no point. I don't want to get in a fight with Shane over her. He would just take her side over mine anyway and he'll find out on his own eventually. Let's get off the subject of her though and concentrate on you and me" Paul replied reaching over and lacing his fingers through hers and brought her hand up to his mouth and kissing the back of it softly.

"Sounds like a great idea" Stephanie replied with a small smile as he caressed the back of her hand with his thumb. She sat back in the seat and relaxed letting all thoughts and doubts from earlier slip away.

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Once the movie was over they made it back out to the lobby and Paul excused himself to use the bathroom before they went to dinner. So Stephanie stood off in a corner to wait on him and so she wouldn't be in anyone's way. The movie she had picked had been a romantic comedy that hadn't really been that great but she had laughed almost all the way through it because of Paul's commentary. He had sat there and made fun of it the whole time and she would pitch in with him and it had made up for it not being the greatest. Her sides were still hurting a little from laughing so much and it didn't help when she giggled even now from thinking about some of the stuff that was said. But the giggling stopped soon when she noticed a woman coming into the lobby that looked familiar and once Stephanie realized who it was all she could do was stare at her. It was the redhead she had caught her father with and she wondered if that meant her father was here too.

"She's a bitch" Stephanie heard a familiar voice beside of her and turned to see Melanie. She had been so interested in the redhead she had no idea someone had come up next to her and it had kind of startled her.

"You know her?" Stephanie asked looking back over at the woman. Melanie was probably one of the last people she wanted to talk to but here she was and she happened to know the woman her father had been with.

"Yeah I babysit her four-year-old daughter sometimes."

"She has a kid? Why do you babysit for her if she is such a bitch?"

"I need the extra money" Melanie replied with a shrug. "Her name is Lila."

"Hmmm" Stephanie replied trying to sound if she weren't really that interested.

"Your dad will realize what a mistake he made eventually" Melanie said which made Stephanie snap her head to her wondering how Melanie knew but then she realized it was because Melanie was her babysitter sometimes. Which meant Melanie probably had seen Vince with her. "Don't worry I won't say anything to anyone. I know what you're going through."

"What do you mean?" Stephanie asked eyeing her suspiciously. This girl had treated her like shit since high school and had even continued it since Stephanie had been home from college. Could she really believe anything she had to say?

"My dad did the same thing to my mom back when we were in high school. It stressed me out and depressed me. It made me want to be alone and shut myself away from everything which made me withdraw from you and Allie until I lost you two as friends."

"You started rumors and starting making fun of us. That's why we stopped being your friend. You started hanging out with the more popular girls in school so it didn't look like you withdrew very much" Stephanie replied wanting to roll her eyes at her.

"I only started hanging out with the more popular girls in school because I already felt like I had lost you and Allie as friends. The girls could get alcohol too and I spent a lot of my free time getting drunk to try and get away from my problems. My parents never noticed or cared because they were focused on their own problems. I only started those rumors and did all of those things to you guys because…." Melanie trailed off and swallowed "I was jealous."

"Jealous?" Stephanie asked not believing it.

"Yes…" Melanie replied and looked away behind Stephanie. She turned to see what had caught Melanie's eye to see Paul coming towards them. "Oh I didn't know you guys were on a date. I'll just get going but maybe we can talk later?"

"Sure" Stephanie replied feeling kind of surprised at Melanie and at the hopeful look on her face. Also for the fact that she was leaving to let Stephanie being alone with Paul.

"I'll talk to you soon then" Melanie replied and gave her a little wave before walking off.

"Are you okay?" Paul asked looking at her and Stephanie nodded her head.

"Yeah it's just weird. She was actually… nice to me" Stephanie replied which made Paul chuckle.

"Who was that?"

"You don't remember?" Stephanie asked looking at Paul who just shook his head. "Remember the girl that you invited to yours and Shane's party because she said she was my friend?"

"Kind of."

"Well that was her. You probably remember her better from when you met Allie the first time at lunch with me and mom."

"Oh now I remember. Allie said something that pissed her off and she stormed out" Paul replied with a laugh and Stephanie couldn't help but giggle at the memory too.

"Anyway are you ready?" Stephanie asked reaching for his hand.

"Yeah let's get going" Paul replied taking her hand in his and they walked out of the building.

It didn't take very long before they were pulling into the parking lot of Stephanie's favorite restaurant and getting out of the car and going in to be seated. As soon they ordered something to drink Stephanie looked around the busy restaurant to make sure her family wasn't here considering Linda said they were going out to dinner. This was usually the spot they picked but as she scanned the room as best as she could she didn't notice anyone familiar to her. The night so far was turning out to be pretty great. They had spent alone time together without being interrupted and she had only ran into one person she knew which was Melanie but she hadn't interrupted them. She hoped that dinner would go good without anyone interrupting them too.

"Trying to make sure there isn't anyone we know here too?" Paul asked with a smile.

"Yeah. Were you?" Stephanie asked and Paul nodded as their waiter came back with their drinks and took their food order. Stephanie opened her straw and put it in her pink lemonade and took a sip from it then looked over at Paul who was staring at her.

"What?" Stephanie asked smiling and feeling suddenly shy. She could feel the heat in her cheeks from blushing.

"I'm really starting to fall for you Steph" Paul replied softly as her heart started to flutter like crazy. She wasn't expecting that to come from him but it didn't stop her from being happy and smiling widely from it. "Which isn't surprising from how long we have known each other and from how incredible I think you are. I find myself thinking about you a lot."

"Me too" Stephanie replied and tried to calm the fluttering in her chest as she waited for the dreaded 'but' because it always seemed to happen to her.

"Which makes me wonder what is going to happen once you go back to college because we both know you are going to go back."

"Do you think it won't work when I go back?" Stephanie asked dreading the answer. She had completely forgotten about college. Maybe it was because she wasn't going back any time soon.

"I want it to but it's going to be tough. Long distance is really tough so I just want to know if you can do it. If it's something you want to do once you go back."

"Yes of course it is" Stephanie replied and Paul gave her a smile. "But it's something that won't be happening for quite a while."

"I know I just wanted to see where you stood on the subject. I just… don't want to lose you again. I really hated not having you in my life for the past five years and I don't want that to happen again."

"Me either."

"So did I mention how beautiful you look tonight?" Paul asked changing the subject to something lighter which she was grateful for. They had a while to think about all of that and for now she just wanted to enjoy the moment but she was also relieved that he seemed to see a future with her.

"Yes but I don't mind hearing it again" Stephanie laughed before taking another sip of her drink.

"You look beautiful tonight" Paul replied which made her blush again. The way he had been tonight with her made her wonder why she had even let Charlotte get into her head and give her doubts. She now realized how ridiculous she had been because it seemed Paul was serious towards their relationship as she was. She just had to keep from letting Charlotte and herself ruin that.


	14. Chapter 14

Wow I didn't mean to take this long to update this story! Here is the next chapter though and thank you everyone for your reviews :) I hope you guys like this chapter!

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Stephanie sat silently in the passenger seat as Paul turned on to her street to take her back home which she was not looking forward to. After the night they had she really dreaded going back home and facing reality again. Last night had just gone to quickly for her but at least she got her alone time with Paul just as he promised and who knows when she would get that again. Paul did promise her before they left the hotel that they would find alone time together again.

"Looks like Linda isn't here" Paul said pulling into the driveway and into the spot where her mom's car usually was parked.

"Hmm she's probably out with Charlotte" Stephanie replied getting out of Paul's car and shutting the door. She tried not to let it bother her but it did more than she wanted it too.

"Speaking of Charlotte, what did she say to you yesterday?" Paul asked coming up behind her as she unlocked the door and stepped inside the house.

"Do you really want to talk about that now?"

"Well I would really like to know what she said and I did say yesterday that we would talk later about it."

"She didn't really say much just some bullshit about how much she cares about Shane and that she knows how close Shane and I are and how protective he is of me. Then she went on to say that it makes her want to look out for me too and that I should be careful with you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Paul asked crossing his arms as they made it into the living room and she sat down on the couch.

"She said that you cheated on her a lot. You would go to parties and get drunk, forget about dates with her. Then she would call you only to have some girl answer your phone saying that you were busy. She said she wanted to help keep me from going through what she did" Stephanie shrugged "just bullshit."

"It is bullshit" Paul replied sitting down on the couch next to her. "I will admit that I did go to a lot of parties and I did get drunk a lot but I never cheated on her. I don't understand why she said that to you but it doesn't really surprise me that she would lie like that."

"I don't understand why she said that to me either" Stephanie replied picking at her nails. She should be relieved hearing him say that it wasn't true but she also didn't understand why Charlotte would just come up and lie to her. What did Charlotte have to gain from it? This is why she didn't want to talk about what Charlotte said because it just brought back some of the doubts she was having. How was she supposed to tell Paul about these doubts without him thinking she didn't trust him at all?

"Don't worry I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to talk to her and tell her to mind her own business."

"That will probably just piss Shane off when she tells him."

"I don't give a fuck about Shane right now. She can talk shit about me and lie about me all she wants to her friends because I don't care about them at all. But when she starts telling all this bullshit to the woman I plan to have a future with then that is when I have a problem with her."

"So everything she said was just lies?"

"Yes" Paul replied leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees and turned his head toward her. "Do you not believe me?"

"I believe you it's just… "

"It really doesn't sound like it and I've done nothing for you not to trust me" Paul replied getting up from the couch and turning to face her.

"You're right you haven't but I don't understand why she would just come to me suddenly and just tell me lies either. Then there is my dad who I never thought would do what he's doing to my mom but he's with some other woman right now. I'm not sure how that happened and I'm not sure what to believe anymore" Stephanie replied running a hand through her hair wishing she would have just kept quiet.

"I don't know why she would either but it was just lies and whatever is going on between your parents Stephanie is between them. I'm not like your father Stephanie, I would never do something like that to you. But if you can't trust me then I don't know how this relationship is going to work" Paul shrugged and shook his head as his words caused her heart to thump against her chest hard and she started to feel an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. There was nothing but silence for a few minutes until they heard the front door open and close.

"Hey guys" Linda greeted them and Stephanie was relieved to see that she was alone. She couldn't deal with Charlotte right now. "Did I interrupt something?"

"No you didn't interrupt anything" Paul replied giving Linda a small smile.

"I had to go out and pick up a few things for lunch later" Linda replied raising up the bag of groceries in her hands that Stephanie hadn't even noticed before. "Tamara and Melanie are coming over for a while. Will you be joining us for lunch Paul?"

"Uh no actually I was just getting ready to leave" Paul replied making Stephanie feel even more uneasy considering how their conversation had ended before Linda arrived and now he was just going to leave. She tried to squash the feeling as he came closer to her and bent down and kissed her forehead.

"Paul- "

"We'll talk later, okay?"

He didn't even give her time to say anything else as he walked off to the front door giving Linda a wave goodbye. Now she really wished she wouldn't have said anything especially since last night had been so great. She had told herself last night she had been ridiculous to let Charlotte get in her head but then she let it happen today anyway. He had told her he was falling for her and now she wondered if she had completely screwed it all up.

"I'm sorry that Melanie is going to be here. I had no idea when you would be home today" Linda said breaking her from her thoughts.

"It's fine" Stephanie replied not even really paying attention to what Linda was saying. Her mind was too focused on what had happened with Paul that she hadn't even noticed Linda was still trying to talk to her.

"Stephanie are you okay?" Linda's voice finally broke her from her thoughts. She turned her head to see that Linda had a look of concern on her face.

"Yeah I'm fine."

"Okay" Linda replied and Stephanie could see that she didn't believe her but at least she wasn't going to press her on it. "I'm going to start putting all this food away. You can help me if you want."

Helping to put groceries away wasn't really her definition of fun but she hadn't really had any time with Linda lately and she really needed to stay occupied to keep herself from overthinking. Reluctantly she got up from her spot on the couch and went in the kitchen to help.

"I've been meaning to ask you how your meeting with dad went? I didn't really get a chance to ask you."

"It was fine just discussing some business matters" Linda replied closing the door to the refrigerator.

"What's going on between you and dad?" Stephanie asked leaning against the counter and crossing her arms. She hadn't wanted to bring all of this up but she was tired of pretending everything was fine. She was tired of Linda giving her excuses and brushing her off. Plus, she needed to know if Linda knew that Vince was with some other woman. Since they were finally alone maybe she could get Linda to finally answer some of her questions.

"Nothing. Everything is fine."

"It's not mom. Dad hasn't even been here, I've seen you crying and you avoid any kind of conversation about him" Stephanie replied watching as Linda continued around the kitchen. It seemed like she wasn't even really paying attention to anything she was saying and it didn't seem like she was going to answer her questions honestly. So Stephanie decided to do the only thing that would get her attention. "I saw dad with another woman."

"He has to talk to women Stephanie so that isn't surprising."

"No I saw him kissing another woman" Stephanie replied watching as Linda froze in the spot she was standing. Stephanie waited a few seconds waiting for Linda to say something or turn around to face her but instead she started seeing Linda's shoulders shake softly. Then the sounds of what sounded like stifled sobs came and then Stephanie felt like complete shit in that moment for just blurting it out like that. "Oh God mom I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault" Linda replied through her sobs and turned around to face Stephanie as she tried drying her eyes.

"That was just really insensitive of me to blurt it out like that. I was just so frustrated with the situation and- "

"Stephanie I already knew" Linda interrupted walking past Stephanie to sit down in a chair.

"You already knew?" Stephanie asked going over and sitting beside of Linda.

"Yes" Linda nodded and continued to wipe at her eyes.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because it still hurts to talk about. It hurts to even hear about him with her and I didn't want to drag you into the middle of our problems. There is nothing you can do about them and it's between me and your father. You shouldn't have to sit and worry about things you have no control over. All I want is for you and Shane to be happy."

"I have been worrying about it though and I've been so pissed off at dad. I'm even more pissed off at him now" Stephanie replied shaking her head. "At some point when dad never came back don't you think you would have to explain that?"

"I was going to tell you and Shane, I just needed some more time to work through this myself. You shouldn't worry about this Stephanie or be pissed at him. He's still your father and he loves you- "

"Don't defend him mom!"

"We've had our problems for a while Stephanie and he hasn't been happy. That's why we decided to separate for the time being. Yes, I'm hurt that he's with some other woman but I don't want you and Shane to take sides. He's been a great father to you two" Linda replied as Stephanie let out a snort.

"Yeah such a great father that he basically tried to run out of here when he came to get a suitcase. He didn't want anything to do with me."

"I asked him not to say anything to you or Shane yet and he was probably just trying to hurry so nothing slipped out."

"Well I'm not sure that I can't be pissed off at him."

"Maybe right now you will be just don't let your anger get the best of you. I don't want you sitting and worrying about it any longer. You should be having fun and being happy."

"Easier said than done" Stephanie replied with a sigh letting her thoughts drift back to the conversation with Paul earlier.

"What is with that look?" Linda asked staring at her and Stephanie just shook her head. "No I spilled so now it's your turn because I know something is bothering you."

"It's just an ex of Paul's" Stephanie replied running a hand through her hair. "She's been telling me things about Paul that I'm not sure if it's true or not. Paul says it's just lies but I don't understand why she is going out of her way to tell me these things. Right now after all the stuff with dad I'm not sure what to think or who to trust. I never thought dad would do the things he has so how do I know Paul wouldn't do those things too?"

"Paul is nothing like your father Stephanie. Just because one person does something doesn't mean someone else would do the same. Don't take out your issues on Paul because that's not fair to him. He hasn't given you a reason not to trust him, right?"

"No" Stephanie replied and shook her head.

"Paul is a great guy and he always has been since I've known him. I can tell by the way he looks at you just how much he does care about you. He looks at you like you're the only person he sees so you ignore this girl who is trying to come between that. She's probably just jealous."

"It's just hard to ignore her. Charlotte seems to be everywhere- "

"Charlotte? Shane's girlfriend?" Linda asked with a confused look. Shit she hadn't meant to say her name and she had forgot about the fact Linda didn't know that Charlotte was Paul's ex.

"Yeah Shane's girlfriend. Shane and her used to be really good friends a couple of years ago and Paul used to date her. Now Shane got back in contact with her and he used to like her so now they are dating."

"Well I guess I'm not the only person that was withholding information" Linda replied arching her eyebrow "is that why you haven't wanted to come out with us?"

"Pretty much" Stephanie admitted feeling a little better after keeping all this bottled up.

"Hmmm I just don't understand why if she is dating Shane then why she is trying to come between you and Paul" Linda replied and Stephanie shrugged. That was what she was trying to figure out herself. "She better not hurt Shane or you. I thought she was nice girl but now it's starting to sound like she's putting on some kind of show."

"I'm not really sure mom but you could be right" Stephanie replied just as the doorbell rang and Linda got up from her seat.

"We'll talk more about this later if you want. That's probably Tamara and Melanie and I'm sure you don't want to talk about this in front of them. Are you going to stay and join us?" Linda asked and Stephanie nodded her head. "Great. Why don't you get the wine out and some glasses?"

"Isn't it a little too early to drink?"

"Screw the time. We both need this" Linda chuckled and walked out of the kitchen. Stephanie couldn't help but laugh herself as she got up from her seat to grab the wine and glasses. Linda had given her some good advice though and she was right about not taking her issues out on Paul because of what Vince had done. Paul really hadn't done anything to make her not trust him and she needed to apologize to him and try not to let Charlotte get to her. But for now she would wait for him to call her so she knew he was ready to talk so right now she was going to spend time with her mom. She just hoped Melanie hadn't turned back into being a bitch to her and maybe she could have a good time Linda.

Two hours later Stephanie sat on the couch chuckling as Tamara and Linda made their way into the kitchen for a new bottle of wine. Linda seemed to be tipsy and she just hoped they could get some food in them before they became completely drunk but at least her mom seemed to be in better spirits. She hadn't really seen her mom in this good of a mood for a while. To be honest she was in quite a good mood herself from spending time with Linda, Tamara and even Melanie. They all had been talking and laughing and Melanie wasn't being a bitch or giving her nasty looks that she was used to getting from her. They were actually getting along for once just like they used to when they had been best friends.

"I think my mom has completely forgotten about lunch and is just going to keep filling up on wine" Melanie said with a laugh as she looked towards the kitchen.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure the same has happened with my mom" Stephanie laughed and put her empty glass down on the coffee table in front of her. A second later Melanie put her glass down next to Stephanie's and then turned to face her with a serious look.

"Listen I just wanted to say I'm sorry" Melanie said letting out a breath. "For everything. The stuff from school that I did and the stuff from recently. When I heard you were back here from college I had actually came over with my mom to apologize. I was excited that you were back and maybe we could repair things between us."

"Really? Because it didn't seem like it from the moment you walked in here that day" Stephanie replied trying not to sound bitchy or start a fight with her but it was kind of hard to believe.

"I know I completely screwed it up. But I did come over that day to apologize and then I laid eyes on Paul and I wanted his attention but it was obvious he only had his attention on you. Which caused all the jealousy to come back once again and I fell right back into the old pattern. Then not long after that I saw you and Allie were still best friends and you two will still just as strong as ever. It hurt but after I left the restaurant it took me a little while but I realized that we could have been friends again if I hadn't acted like a complete bitch."

"I just don't understand what caused all of this jealousy in the first place or why things happened the way they did" Stephanie replied shaking her head slightly.

"Well you remember yesterday how I told you that my dad cheated on my mom too?" Melanie asked and Stephanie nodded her head. "That's what started it. You seemed to have such a great family and life and I was stuck at home in the middle of my parents fighting at first. All they did was fight and I was constantly worrying about how things were going to turn out. I sunk into depression after a while especially when I was no longer in the middle of their fighting because then they were just ignoring me. It seemed like I had no one who cared about me."

"You had me and Allie. I don't understand though your parents are still together and they were together while we were still in school too."

"From the outside we looked like a happy family but behind closed doors is a completely different story. My mom really did want to work things out with my dad and they tried to work on it while trying to keep up appearances to their friends that everything was just great. After some time, things finally did get a little better between them but like I told you yesterday I started hanging out with those girls and at the point I didn't care much about anything. So while things were finally getting better between my parents I was still dealing with my own problems. At first I tried to hang out with you and Allie like everything was fine. I didn't want to talk about my family problems and it seemed like you two were starting to become better friends and I was being phased out" Melanie sniffed and wiped a tear from her eye. "It hurt even worse. I just started to get jealous and hated you for having this perfect life that I didn't fit into anymore. So the days that I really felt like shit well I would start rumors to take out my frustration to maybe help myself feel better but I never did."

"I wished you would have told me this a long time ago. I'm sorry that I made you feel like your friendship wasn't important to me because it was."

"It was my own fault for not speaking up and causing the actions that happened Steph. I'm the only one that has to be sorry for causing you and Allie complete hell in high school. As you can tell things are finally okay again with my parents after quite a bit of counselling and I've dealt with my own problems too. I'm really close to my mom now but I didn't really solve my problems until a little bit after graduation. Then I realized how badly I fucked up when I didn't have 'real' friends anymore. You and I used to be like sisters, and you and Allie were the only real friends I had. I just realized it way too late. Then I fucked up once again when I became jealous of you and Paul. But I was never going to win that one I realize that now. It was never a competition anyway I just tried to make it one but Paul was already yours and it was apparent he wasn't going anywhere. That man has it bad for you" Melanie giggled and Stephanie smiled. "I finally realized I could still repair things between us and after I found about your dad I knew you must be having a hard time. So I thought maybe I could help with letting you know you're not alone and maybe fix things with us. I've missed you and I want our friendship back."

"I accept your apology" Stephanie replied wondering if Melanie was actually telling the truth. Everything she was saying sounded genuine and she had cried through a little bit of it. If she was just acting, then this woman probably deserved an award. "But it's going to take some time to get back to the way our friendship was."

"Thank you and I know that" Melanie said nodding her head and sighed. "I don't think Allie is going to be as forgiving."

"Yeah you're probably right" Stephanie replied and they laughed. She wasn't going to completely trust her right off and she was going to keep an eye on Melanie but hopefully she was being honest. She really did miss the girl Melanie used to be and the friendship they once had. Maybe just maybe Melanie would no longer be an enemy but she was going to take it one step at a time.

* * *

Stephanie sat in her car debating if she really wanted to go up to Shane and Paul's apartment because she really didn't want to even see Charlotte. But she really wanted to see Paul because she hadn't heard from him all day and now it was nearing nine o'clock. Every time she had tried his cellphone it had went straight to voicemail and she was getting worried so the only option she had was to come here. Part of her wondered if he was ignoring her and she was going to find out.

She got out of her car and shut the door and headed to the building. When she got on the elevator she jabbed the number nervously and waited for the doors to close and take her to her floor. Tonight it seemed to take forever for the elevator to take her where she needed to go and when the doors reopened she hurried down the hallway. She knocked quickly hoping that either Shane or Paul would answer the door and not Charlotte.

"Stephanie what are you doing here?" Shane asked opening the door and Stephanie felt relieved that at least it wasn't Charlotte.

"I'm here to see my boyfriend" Stephanie replied motioning for him to step aside but he just gave her a strange look.

"Paul isn't here."

"What?"

"He hasn't been here for hours now" Shane replied as Stephanie tried swallowing the lump in her throat. "I haven't seen him since he came in earlier and went off on Charlotte. Paul and I got in a fight after that and he stormed off."

"Dammit" Stephanie cursed and turned to head back to the elevator.

"I don't understand why you are trying to start shit" Shane grabbed her arm and she turned back to face him. "I know you don't like Charlotte but do you really have to go and tell Paul lies?"

"What are you talking about?" Stephanie asked feeling confused.

"You telling Paul that Charlotte said things that she didn't say. Why did you ask her questions about Paul and then get mad about it and tell lies to Paul? It's just like you to start shit" Shane replied letting go of her arm.

"Is that what she told you?" Stephanie scoffed and Shane narrowed his eyes at her.

"Yeah. Did you think nobody would find out?" Shane asked as Stephanie shook her head and headed for the elevator. She wasn't dealing with Shane or Charlotte right now, the only person she wanted was Paul. It was apparent Shane wasn't going to believe her. She didn't understand how their relationship became so strained that he would take up for Charlotte over her. Well at least now she knew that Charlotte was nothing but a liar and she might have turned Shane on her but she wouldn't do that with anyone else. It was a good thing that she had opened up to Linda earlier today. "Might want to check some bars around here if you can even get in. Knowing Paul that's where he will be."

Stephanie tried to ignore him as she stepped into the elevator and turned around to face him and stuck up her middle finger at him. But Shane had already turned back to the door of his apartment and was stepping inside just as the elevator door began to close. Now she was left wondering where the hell Paul was?


	15. Chapter 15

Thank you for the reviews :) I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!

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Stephanie held onto the cup of coffee in her hands tightly as she stared at her phone willing it to ring or for a text to come in but so far it remained silent. Last night after leaving Paul and Shane's apartment she tried looking for Paul at some places but she didn't find him. She kept trying to call his phone because she was becoming increasingly worried he might have been an accident or something. But every time she would call it would go straight to his voicemail and she had spent most of the night up and worrying. At some point she had finally fallen asleep but it hadn't been that good of a rest and she was very irritable now. Especially when Shane had to come to the house that morning alone for once, she had snapped at him when he had spoken to her.

"Still nothing?" Allie asked sitting down at the table with her and she shook her head. After sitting at home do nothing but worrying she decided to go over to Allie's house to try and get her mind off of it. It hadn't really helped, now she was just sitting at Allie's worrying instead.

"I'm becoming really worried" Stephanie replied sitting down her cup of coffee.

"I think you're already beyond that."

"Maybe" Stephanie sighed and rubbed at her tired eyes. "I just don't understand why he didn't call me and tell me what had happened. He also said he would call me later and now I'm terrified he's been in some accident. Either that or we're over and he is just ignoring me."

"Well I don't know Paul that well but I don't think he would lie to you and not even tell you that you two are over."

"Stupid fucking Charlotte" Stephanie replied angrily. She knew it was her own fault for letting Charlotte get to her and for believing her for even a second. If it hadn't been for Charlotte trying to cause problems in the first place though she wouldn't be in this mess.

"Yeah I didn't think anyone could be worse than Melanie but I was wrong" Allie replied taking a drink of her coffee.

"Actually I talked to Melanie yesterday and she explained a lot of things about what happened in high school. She even apologized and asked if we could be friends again."

"And you believed her?" Allie arched her eyebrows and looked at Stephanie like she was crazy. "I wonder what she has up her sleeve? I don't buy that for a minute and please don't tell me you're going to fall for her shit too."

"Wow thanks" Stephanie replied "I don't fully trust her but I'm not too worried about her right now. She seems to be the least of my worries. I think she might try apologizing to you too."

"She can save her fake apology because I won't believe a word of it" Allie replied making Stephanie smile because she knew Allie would be like this. It was the reason Stephanie had told Melanie good luck with talking with Allie. "Why are you smiling?"

"I just know you so well. I knew yesterday when Melanie mentioned trying to apologize to you that this is how you would be."

"Yeah well I know you too, we're like sisters. That's how I know something is wrong without you even having to mention it" Allie replied with a smile just as Stephanie's phone started ringing. Stephanie instantly grabbed it but felt disappointed when she saw it was Linda calling. She was hoping it had been Paul.

"Hello."

"Hey where are you?" Stephanie heard Paul's voice and instant relief flooded through her at the sound of his voice.

"I'm at Allie's. Why are you calling from my mom's phone?"

"Mine is dead. I had a fight with Shane last night and I left because I couldn't be around him and Charlotte anymore. I forgot my phone charger and I don't want to go back to the apartment to be honest. So I came here to talk to you but you weren't home and Linda didn't know where you had gone so she let me borrow her phone to call you."

"Okay well I'll be right there" Stephanie replied pushing back her chair and getting up.

"See you soon. Be careful" Paul replied before she disconnected the call and grabbed her purse.

"Sorry to leave so soon- "

"It's okay Steph. I know you need to go talk to him and make sure everything is okay. Plus, Daniel and his mother will be back soon" Allie rolled her eyes "I can't wait until she leaves. Just call me later and let me know how things went."

"I will" Stephanie replied giving Allie a quick hug before she practically ran out of the house and to her car.

On her way home now that she knew Paul was fine she began to worry if things between them were going to be okay. Also she wondered where he had been, she had been so relieved just to hear his voice that she had forgotten about that. So as soon as she was home she made her way nervously but quickly inside to get her answers. When she got into the living room she saw Paul sitting on the couch leaning forward with his head in his hands.

"Hey" Stephanie said and Paul looked up at her. He looked exhausted like he hadn't slept much last night either.

"Hey. Come here" Paul replied patting the seat next to him. She didn't even hesitate and went straight to the seat next to him and threw her arms around his neck. It didn't matter to her that they had got in a fight yesterday or that things might not be okay between them at the moment. The only thing that mattered was he was okay after she had spent all night worrying about him. Paul wrapped his arms around her bringing her closer to him and then she felt his lips gently kiss the side of her neck.

"I was so worried about you when I couldn't reach you."

"I'm sorry I should have called you from Shawn's phone when I got to his place but I was still pissed off and Shawn suggested that me and him go out and get a drink. By the time I was calmed down well I was really drunk and ended up crashing as soon as we got back to Shawn's place. As soon as I woke up and nursed my hangover a little I drove straight here to see you" Paul replied as they broke out of the hug.

"Who is Shawn?"

"Another friend of mine. He lives a couple of hours away so I don't get to see him much."

"Oh. Listen I'm sorry" Stephanie said tucking her hair behind her ears. "I'm sorry for doubting you yesterday and letting Charlotte get to me. You were right about her lying. I went to your place last night because I couldn't reach you on your phone and Shane started asking me why I was starting shit. Apparently Charlotte told Shane that I was lying and was asking questions about you and her."

"So you believe me now?" Paul asked and Stephanie nodded her head "do you only believe it now though because now she's telling lies about you?"

"No. I was taking my issues out with my dad on you and I'm sorry. Mom finally sat down and told me everything and made me see that and you're right. You're nothing like my father and I really do trust you, I just let everything else get to me."

"You should have believed me right then and there though Steph. I know you have your trust issues with your dad but I like I said I would never do something like that to you. I've not done anything for you not to trust me, all you've heard was lies from my ex. Mine and Charlotte's relationship didn't end on good terms if you remember me telling you that before she even came here. So it doesn't surprise me that she is telling lies but it surprised me that you would just believe them. Charlotte lies and manipulates people she did it all the time and she's doing it now with Shane which I didn't expect him to believe me, he never did before. I expected you to have my back and it really hurt that you didn't even after I told you how I felt about you just the other night."

"I know and I'm sorry. I've probably ruined it all and I feel so stupid for believing her- "

"Steph you didn't ruin anything. I can't just turn off the way I feel for you but I do want you to trust me like I do you. So do you think the next time something like this happens that you'll be able to?" Paul asked and she nodded her head "because I don't really want to fight over this again unless I've given you a reason not to trust me."

"So are we okay?"

"We're going to be fine babe. You're just going to have to have some faith in me because without trust our relationship won't work. Especially when you decide to go back to college and there will be distance between us. You have to trust that I'm not being the way Charlotte made me out to be or all we're going to do is fight and it's going to make us miserable. We won't last very long if that happens."

"I know and I will. I won't make that mistake again"

"I was being serious yesterday Steph when I said I planned to have a future with you. That's why when yesterday I went home and Charlotte was there I started yelling at her which caused me and Shane to get an argument" Paul gave a frustrated sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "That reminds me of the not so good news yesterday."

"What news?"

"Shane let it be known yesterday that Charlotte is moving into the apartment with him."

"Already? They haven't even been dating long."

"Yeah I know. He said something about her wanting to move here so they didn't have to be in a long distance relationship" Paul replied as Stephanie bit her lower lip not liking the fact that Charlotte was going to be sticking around here. She was going to be living with Shane and Paul which meant there was no telling what kind of bullshit she was going to have to put up with. "So I wanted to ask you if it was okay if I spent a little more time here until I can find my own place."

"Of course" Stephanie smiled feeling excited about Paul getting his own place. She wouldn't have to deal with Charlotte to see him and they would finally be able to get some time alone. No more interruptions from Shane or Linda. "Are you sure about moving out though?"

"Definitely. I can't deal with their bullshit. It was cheaper for me splitting rent with Shane but I can't stand to be around him anymore. He seems to have changed since he started dating Charlotte." Stephanie nodded her head in agreement thinking back to last night.

"You can stay here as much as you like. I'm sure mom won't mind."

"I'm going to ask her to make sure but as long as she says yes I'll definitely be staying here with you tonight. I'll have to go home and get my phone charger and pack some stuff for tonight. There is no way I'm staying there at all today so it looks like your stuck with me."

"I'm not going to complain about that" Stephanie chuckled and he leaned over and kissed her. Stephanie felt a lot better now than she did this morning and she was happy things were okay between them now. Hopefully soon the only way she would have to deal with Charlotte was when she came over to the house with Shane. One thing she did know was now no matter what bullshit Charlotte wanted to spew out of her mouth she wouldn't believe a single word. She really shouldn't have believed her in the first place but what's done is done and the only thing to do now was learn from the mistake and move forward.

* * *

Later that night Paul and Stephanie walked out of the restaurant holding hands and then got into the car and headed towards Stephanie's house. After Paul had went back to his apartment and grabbed some of his things and brought them back to her house he had suggested they go out for dinner. Of course she had agreed because she had just wanted to spend some more time together alone especially after what had just happened yesterday. Neither one of them wanted to even speak about that or about Charlotte. The only time Charlotte had come up in conversation was when Stephanie asked Paul if Shane or her had said anything to him when he went to get some of his things from the apartment. Surprisingly Shane or Charlotte hadn't even been at the apartment for once so she was kind of nervous they might run into them while they were out.

Fortunately, they hadn't but as soon as Stephanie and Paul made it back to her house Shane's car was the first car she noticed in the driveway before they had even pulled in.

"I guess we can't completely get away from them" Paul said shutting off the car.

"Not right now anyways" Stephanie replied but she knew sometime soon they would be able to avoid them better once Paul found his own apartment. "We can't hide here in the car so we might as well head inside."

"Let's go then" Paul said getting out of the car and Stephanie opened her door and got out. She then followed behind him as he started to head toward the front door until he stopped almost causing her to run into him. He stood there for a moment before looking over at the yard and then he turned and started walking across the lawn.

"What are you doing?" Stephanie asked as Paul headed over to the bench in the yard and sat down. It was the same bench five years ago where they had sat when she thought he might kiss her. But she had ended up completely embarrassed and left feeling rejected.

"Sitting down for a moment before we have to go inside" Paul replied while Stephanie sat down on the bench beside of him. They couldn't hide from Shane and Charlotte in the car but they could try to avoid them for just a few minutes longer. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing" Stephanie shook her head as Paul rested his arm behind her on the bench.

"You just had this look on your face when you went to sit down. It was like you wanted to be anywhere but here."

"I want to be here with you. It's just I remembered the last time I sat here with you and it didn't end very well."

"Oh, the night of Shane's birthday party we threw for him" Paul replied and Stephanie nodded feeling embarrassed all over again from the memory. Even though she was with Paul now it was still an embarrassing moment for her.

"Yeah one of the most embarrassing moments of teenage ye-" Stephanie was cut off by Paul taking her by surprise and softly kissing her. Stephanie melted into the kiss as he deepened it making her forget for the moment everything about that night.

"I would have kissed you that night if you would have been older. You have no idea how close I came to just doing it that night" Paul replied once he broke their kiss and rested his forehead against hers. "But hopefully you can replace the memory of that with this one now."

"Really? You came close to kissing me that night? I just remember closing my eyes and a second later you moved away from me quickly."

"Yes I did and I didn't really move away as quickly as you think I did."

"Hmm maybe. I just remember being completely embarrassed and then we didn't talk again after that for five years."

"Now we do a whole lot more than talk" Paul smirked at her and she couldn't help but chuckle at him. Paul then leaned back away from her and brought his fingers to her shoulder fiddling with the strap of her dress. "I really like this dress. It reminds me of the dress you wore to dinner that night when we saw each other again for the first time after all those years."

"Oh you mean the night that kept sliding your hand up my thigh and teasing me?" Stephanie asked just as she felt his other hand slip underneath her dress. "Like you're doing now."

"Yeah except that dress was shorter" Paul replied leaning towards her and kissing her neck. "What was so wrong with that anyway? I remember that being a pretty great night."

"Except for the fact that you teased me all night and did nothing to relieve my frustrations so I went to bed feeling very frustrated" Stephanie replied closing her eyes and biting her bottom lip as his hand inched further up her thigh.

"Well tonight I plan on making sure your completely satisfied" Paul whispered into her ear just as his hand slipped inside her panties and she let out a moan. She was getting lost in the moment and the sensations he was making her feel that she had forgotten where they were until she felt a breeze come through cooling her now flushed exposed skin. She opened her eyes remembering they were sitting outside and realized anyone could see them. If anyone did see them then anyone could tell exactly what they were doing considering there was still some light outside even though it was getting late.

"Paul" Stephanie said trying to get his attention as he kissed her neck. "We have to stop."

"Why?" Paul murmured against her neck.

"Because we are outside where anyone can come by and see us" Stephanie replied as he stopped and groaned but after a few seconds he removed his hand. She quickly pulled down her dress and stood up from the bench wanting to get inside to finish what they had started. "Are you coming?"

"No I didn't even get a chance to- "

"You know what I mean" Stephanie replied playfully smacking him on the chest and he chuckled as he got up from the bench.

"Well if that didn't replace the bad memory we had on that bench five years ago I'm not sure what else will" Paul replied slipping her hand into his as they walked towards the house.

"I'll definitely be thinking of this moment from now on when I see that bench" Stephanie chuckled "so how are we supposed to get to my room without running into Shane and Charlotte?"

"Just ignore them if we see them and keep going as quickly as you can" Paul replied walking even faster than they had been before.

Stephanie picked up her speed to match his and hoped they could just make it upstairs to her room without running into anyone. Okay well maybe there was a part of her that wanted Charlotte to see them and see that if she had been trying to succeed in breaking them up then it hadn't worked. But she didn't even want to focus on that right now because all she wanted was Paul and nothing else mattered at the moment.


	16. Chapter 16

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update my stories but I've been going through a lot and I've been stressed and I've been dealing with depression. It just completely drained me and I'm just now starting to feel better so if I don't update for a while then that's the reason. Just know that I will update when I can. Thank you for the reviews and I hope you guys like this chapter! Happy holidays :)

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Stephanie turned over and reached her arm out in search of Paul and then slowly started to open her eyes after her arm landed on the empty space beside of her. Paul had been practically living at her house for the last few weeks since his and Shane's fight and she was usually up before him on weekends. So, it was unusual to her that he was up before her. She let out a yawn and stretched before she started to throw back the comforter just as she heard her bedroom door open and then the click as it shut again. She stayed sitting on the bed waiting as Paul came into view holding a tray.

"Good you're awake" Paul said coming closer to her and she could smell the aroma of bacon and her stomach suddenly rumbled in response. "I decided to make you breakfast in bed."

"That's so sweet" Stephanie replied as she leaned against her headboard as he put the tray down in front of her. "You got up early just to make me breakfast?"

"I wanted to start your birthday off to a good start." Paul smiled and leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. "Happy birthday baby."

"Thank you" Stephanie replied before taking a bite of her food. With all the drama with her family lately she hadn't been that excited about it like she usually would have. But with Paul getting up just to try to start her birthday off with a good start made her have some hope that it could still be a good birthday.

"I'll be right back. I have something else for you too" Paul said hurrying out of the bedroom before she could ask him anything. She continued eating her food as she sat there trying to wait patiently for him to come back.

It wasn't that long before she heard footsteps and when she looked up from her food he was walking into her room holding a vase filled with a dozen red roses.

"They're beautiful" Stephanie gasped putting the tray on her night stand and getting up from the bed to take the roses from him.

"I also got up early to go buy these for you."

"I love them" Stephanie replied with a smile.

"That's not all I got you but I was talking to your mom this morning while I made you breakfast and she asked me to wait to give you your birthday gift until later."

"Why?"

"Something about wanting to give you gifts later tonight at the birthday dinner" Paul replied and Stephanie groaned. It was a tradition for as long as she could remember for the family to go out for dinner for birthday's. But considering how things were lately with her family she didn't think it would be happening this year. Her dad hadn't been around in weeks, she hadn't even talked to him on the phone. Then there was Shane who thought Charlotte could do no wrong that he had blamed her for things that had been Charlotte's doing. Paul and Shane hadn't really been speaking either especially after Paul had told him he was looking for a new place.

"I really didn't that was going to happen this year. It's a terrible idea" Stephanie replied shaking her head.

"I know it's not how you prefer to spend your night but I'll be right there with you" Paul replied as Stephanie sighed and put her vase of roses on her dresser for the moment. Maybe the dinner wouldn't be so bad with Paul there and who knows with the way Shane had been treating her if he would even show up. It could end up just being her, Paul and Linda. That thought made her feel a little better about the dinner tonight. "Are you done with your breakfast?"

"Yeah I'm not so hungry anymore" Stephanie replied looking over at the tray where only a little bit of food was left anyway. At least there wasn't much that was going to waste and she had enjoyed what she had ate. "I guess I'll take it downstairs. Mom is probably waiting to wish me a happy birthday."

Stephanie grabbed the plate off the tray and heading out of the room to go downstairs to the kitchen. When she arrived in the kitchen she was surprised to see Ali sitting and talking to her mom.

"Happy birthday!" Allie shouted at her when she noticed her walking into the kitchen.

"Thanks" Stephanie smiled as she walked over the trashcan and dumped the food left on the plate and then she put the plate in the sink. "I'm surprised you came over here just to wish me a happy birthday."

"Well I came over to give you your birthday gift too" Allie pointed at the wrapped present beside of her. "Linda was telling me about the birthday dinner tonight. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to make it because I have to work. It's the reason I'm over here so early so I would able to do something with you on your birthday."

"So does that mean I get to open my gift from you now?"

"No you will open it with all your other gifts tonight" Linda replied before Allie had the chance to.

"This is ridiculous mom" Stephanie sighed and sat down next to Allie. "This whole birthday dinner is going to be a disaster. I don't know why you insist on wanting to do it."

"It's what we always do."

"Yeah when we were an actual family" Stephanie mumbled but Linda must have heard her because her expression on her face looked hurt. "Mom- "

"I know this your day Stephanie but this is the one thing that feels normal for me considering how everything has changed so much in the last few months. For once I just want something to stay the same. Maybe you're right, we aren't much a family anymore considering how your father left and Shane and you have been fighting. But you and Shane are the only thing I have left and I want to make today special for you" Linda replied wiping away a tear that had fallen and Stephanie couldn't help but feel bad. She hadn't realized this dinner had meant so much to her mom.

"I know you don't want to the dinner but do it for her" Paul whispered in her ear. She wasn't sure when he had joined them but it had apparently been when her mom was giving her explanation for the dinner.

"I'm sorry mom. We'll do the dinner, I didn't know how much it meant to you."

"Thank you Stephanie" Linda gave her a smile and even though the dinner was something she wasn't looking forward to she was just going to suck it up and get through it for her mom.

"If it ends up being as bad you think then I'll make it up to you" Paul whispered in her ear and then gave her a kiss.

"So, Paul is it okay if I steal the birthday girl from you for a little while?" Allie asked as he sat down beside of them.

"Allie has to work tonight so she can't make the dinner and she wants to do something with me now."

"It's your birthday you can do whatever you want. I'm sure I can find something to do while you're gone and then when you get back you and I can spend the rest of the day together."

"Then we probably should get going so you two will have time to spend together" Allie said jumping up from her seat.

"How long do you think it's going to take?" Stephanie chuckled as Allie shrugged.

"When we go shopping you never know how long we will be" Allie replied as Stephanie got out of her seat.

"I'll be back in a little bit" Stephanie said to Paul as she leaned down and kissed him.

"Have fun" Paul replied and kissed her again before Allie started gagging noises and started telling her to hurry up.

* * *

Later that night as Stephanie and Paul headed to dinner at her favorite restaurant where Linda had booked a reservation she started to feel nervous. She really didn't want her night to be ruined when her day had been good. Earlier when Stephanie had got back from her shopping trip with Allie she put away all the stuff she had bought herself as birthday gifts. Then her and Paul spent the rest of the time before dinner watching her favorite movies and cuddling. She hadn't really wanted to do much honestly but sit back and relax with her boyfriend and she had to admit just doing that had made her birthday one of the bests. Maybe it was because she was spending it with the guy she had wanted for years that had made it one of the best. But now she was nervous the rest of her night was going to be ruined.

"Are you ready?" Paul asked squeezing her hand gently getting her attention as they walked to the entrance of the restaurant.

"Not really but we're here so might as well go in" Stephanie sighed and opened the door and stepped inside the restaurant. There was loud chatter all around and the place looked busy but she tried to ignore it as she gave her name and they were led to their table. As the table came into view Stephanie was surprised that the first person she saw was her father and then she noticed he was sitting by her mother. They were talking and Linda suddenly starting laughing and as Stephanie got to the table Linda's eyes fell on her.

"The birthday girl is here" Linda announced as Stephanie looked around the table to see Shane had made it after all and he unfortunately brought Charlotte with him.

"Happy birthday sweetheart" Vince said as she took the seat in front of him.

"Thanks dad" Stephanie smiled not sure what else to do. She was feeling confused at the moment, part of her was pissed off that he was acting like everything was great. But the other part of her was happy to see him and happy to see her parents even sitting together.

"Shane, don't you have something to say to Stephanie?" Linda asked looking over to Shane.

"Oh, happy birthday" Shane said coldly and then turned his attention to the menu in front of him. Apparently, he was still pissed at her but she's was just going to ignore it. It was the best way to avoid any drama right now and she could deal with their issues with each other later. Although she did wonder if he was still pissed at her why did he even bother to show up? Oh well at least Charlotte wasn't even going to pretend like nothing had happened and tried to be nice to her. Instead she didn't even glance at Stephanie and kept her focus on Shane.

"Don't let them get to you" Paul said quietly to her breaking from her thoughts and her attention away from Shane and Charlotte.

"I'm trying not to. I just don't even know why he showed up, especially with her."

"He might be pissed at you right now but you're still his sister and he loves you."

"I'm kind of finding that hard to believe right now. He took up for her instead of even hearing me out and now he brings her to my birthday dinner."

"He does love you. He's just caught up on Charlotte and her bullshit. He was this way with her before and it's why mine and his friendship suffered after Charlotte and I broke up for good" Paul replied as the waiter approached and starting taking their orders.

"It's suffering now because of her."

"Yeah but that's my issue and you don't need to worry about it. Just try to ignore them and enjoy your dinner" Paul replied as everyone waited their turn to give their food order to the waiter.

Stephanie watched as Vince whispered something into her Linda's ear making her chuckle and her eyes light up. It had been awhile since Stephanie had actually seen her happy since Vince left. It made her feel good that at least her mother was enjoying herself and was happy for the time being. The only thing she was worried about was how this was going to affect Linda when he was gone again. Which also made Stephanie wonder why her mother was suddenly unaffected by all the things that had being going on with her and Vince. If she was Linda she would not be sweeping their problems under the rug and getting along so well. Tonight, was definitely weird but at least it was going better than expected.

After their food was brought to their table and everyone started eating, the chatter at their table disappeared. Until Stephanie was half way done and Vince's cellphone starting playing music. She watched as he pulled it out of his pocket and she assumed it was a text because he started tapping away at his phone. She looked over at Linda and noticed the hurt look on her face as she stared at Vince's phone and then Linda turned her attention back to her food.

"I have to make a phone call. I'm just going to step outside but I'll be right back" Vince said getting up from the table and Stephanie couldn't help but feel pissed off.

"Unbelievable" Shane scoffed and then Stephanie heard his fork hit his plate. "If he was going to run off in the middle of dinner just to talk to his new play thing then he should have just brought her with him."

As soon as the words were out of Shane's mouth Linda excused herself from the table and Stephanie watched as she rushed to the direction of the bathroom.

"Did you really have to say that?" Stephanie scolded him and he shrugged.

"It's obvious that's what he is doing. Hell, he could have hurt mom less if he had just brought the new woman with him instead of giving mom false hope that maybe things could be salvaged between them" Shane replied and Stephanie had to admit it did look like her mom might have had some hope. It was clear her mom was still in love with her father and probably enough just to try and put what happened past them and work on their relationship.

"But you could have just kept your opinion to yourself instead of hurting her worse" Stephanie argued before getting up from the table and heading after Linda.

When she opened the bathroom door Linda was coming out from one of the stalls dabbing at her eyes with a piece of tissue as she walked over to the sinks.

"Mom I'm sorry" Stephanie said going over to her as Linda tried to fix her makeup in the mirror.

"It's not your fault. You shouldn't be the one apologizing" Linda replied wiping underneath her eyes.

"No, it should be Shane- "

"It's not his fault either. Maybe I don't deserve an apology at all really. I'm the one who got caught up in the moment forgetting why your father and I are no longer together" Linda replied turning on the water and washing her hands quickly. "It doesn't matter. Let's just get back out there and enjoy the rest of dinner."

"But…." Stephanie trailed off as Linda dried her hands and then left her standing there. Stephanie stood there for a few minutes trying to calm down her emotions when the bathroom door opened. She knew it was time to get out of there when she saw that it was Charlotte. Ignoring her she walked past her and went to leave and go back to the table.

"Heading back?" Charlotte asked and Stephanie looked over to see her standing in front of the mirror reapplying her lipstick. "It's pretty bad at the table right now. It looks like your man might still have feelings for me. They're both at the table fighting over me."

"They're not fighting over you. They're fighting over the problems you've caused so don't delude yourself" Stephanie replied jerking the bathroom door open and left. She didn't have to make it back to the table before she heard their raised voices at each other but they weren't the only ones. Vince was back at the table now and him and Linda were both arguing with each other. Charlotte wasn't lying this time when she said things were pretty bad.

"Guys" Stephanie hissed as she sat back down in her seat but it was like none of them even heard her as they kept arguing. It started attract attention to their table and it got even worse when some of the waiters started singing happy birthday and carrying a cake over to their table.

That hadn't even got anybody's attention at the table but it seemed like everyone in the restaurant was staring at her. Not being able to take anymore she got up from the table and pushed her chair in and started heading outside as the waiters stood there looking uncomfortable. Never again would she let Linda talk her into something like this again. She knew it was going to be a disaster and now her night had been ruined.

She walked outside and remembered that she had come with Paul so it was either wait for him to notice she had left or call a cab to come and get her. But there was no way in hell she was going back in that restaurant, she already felt embarrassed enough by everyone's behavior. So, she decided to walk to Paul's car and wait and if he didn't notice she was gone soon then she would just take a cab home.

Stephanie wasn't sure how long it had been but it hadn't seemed long when she saw Paul walking out of the restaurant and then to the direction of the car.

"Steph I'm so sorry" Paul apologized but she ignored him and waited for him to unlock the doors. "You're pissed at me."

"Yes, I am" Stephanie replied and got into the car after he unlocked the doors.

"I really am sorry. I didn't mean to get in fight with him but he was being a fucking asshole" Paul replied but she just stared out the window as they started to drive away from the restaurant. She knew she was being childish but she was just pissed off at all them for causing a scene and she didn't want to fight with Paul. The best thing right now for her was just to keep her mouth shut.

The whole ride back to her house was spent in silence except for the music playing low in the background. As soon as they pulled into her driveway she hurried out of the car and into her house. All she wanted to do now was put on some music while she took a bubble bath and just try to relax. Maybe she could spend some of the rest of her night in a good mood.

* * *

Stephanie wasn't exactly sure how long she spent taking a bubble bath but as soon as she was done and dressed she headed to her room. The first thing she noticed was lit candles and a trail of rose petals on the floor from her doorway to her bed where was Paul sitting. No one had ever done something like this for her before. She thought this kind of stuff only happened in the movies.

"I'm sorry for getting in a fight with Shane and ruining your night" Paul said when she came into the bedroom.

"It's not your fault. Everyone was fighting, it wasn't just you."

"I know but I still shouldn't have been involved in it. For that I am sorry and earlier I told you if the dinner ended up being bad then I would make it up to you" Paul said going over and picking a glass up from her nightstand and handed it to her as she came closer to him. "I got us some champagne and I was able to get two slices of your birthday cake from the restaurant."

"I don't remember seeing you bring anything out of the restaurant."

"Well that is because you were ignoring me" Paul replied and gave her a quick kiss before she could say anything in response. He then handed her a plate with her slice of cake.

"It's kind of funny my day started off with eating in bed and now it's ending with eating in bed" Stephanie chuckled as she sat down on the end of her bed.

"It will end with a lot more than just eating in bed" Paul smirked at her before taking a sip of his champagne.

"Maybe" Stephanie replied and took a bite of her cake. She knew he was right though there really was no denying it.

"I was able to get this for you too" Paul said ignoring her maybe comment and reached inside his pocket and pulled out a small wrapped gift. "It's your birthday gift."

He held it out for her and she put down her glass of champagne and took it from him. She tore the paper off to find a small velvet box. When she opened the box, she saw that it was a heart shaped diamond pendant.

"Paul it's beautiful" Stephanie replied taking it out of the box. "I love it."

"Here let me help you put it on" Paul said scooting closer to her and taking it from her. She pulled her hair up out of the way for him as he put it around her neck. "Happy birthday."

He kissed the side of her neck and then kissed her on the lips. Dinner with her family might have ended up shitty but Paul really was making up for it just as he promised. Overall, she would have to say it was a good birthday and the night still wasn't over yet.


	17. Chapter 17

Thank you guys for the reviews :) I hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Stephanie groaned and stretched out before rolling over and pulled her comforter up to her neck, snuggling underneath the warm. She was still half asleep and was not ready to get up but apparently, someone else had other plans for her as she felt a soft kiss be placed on her lips.

"Mmhhh, morning breath" Paul said with a chuckle.

"What did you expect? I'm not even awake yet" Stephanie replied opening one of her eyes and looked at him. It hadn't looked like he had been up too long considering he was still naked, from the waist up anyway, and his hair was a mess. "It's not that bad."

"Are you sure about that?" Paul joked tugging the covers off her. "You really do steal all the covers though."

"I'm cold" Stephanie replied tugging them back to wrap herself up in them again.

"Come here then" Paul replied moving even closer to her and laid down next to her. She lifted her head and laid it down on his chest as he put his arms around her and held her close to him. She laid there closing her eyes and listened to the sound of his heartbeat while his fingers trailed up and down the small of her back, lulling her back to sleep.

Stephanie wasn't sure how long they had laid there or how long she had been back to sleep before the ringing of a phone had her back awake and sighing in frustration. Paul slid out from underneath her and she fell back to the bed while pulling the comforter over her head.

"Whoever that is tell them I'm mad at them" Stephanie mumbled underneath the comforter. She wasn't even sure if Paul heard her until he picked up the phone and relayed her message. Then she heard Paul start to laugh at whatever the person said.

Curious as to who was on the phone she pulled the comforter down and sat up in bed rubbing her eyes. Then she ran her hand through her bed hair trying to make it look somewhat presentable. At least until she got of the bed to brush it but she was sure it really didn't matter considering how messy Paul's hair was too. But at least it looked cute on him, she couldn't help but smile as she watched him pace back and forth at the foot of her bed in nothing but his boxers. He then suddenly looked over at and furrowed his brow probably at the grin she had on her face but she just shook her head at him.

"What time do you think that will be?" Paul asked going back to pacing back and forth. She really wished she knew he was talking to and what they were talking about. But she didn't want to interrupt him just because she was too impatient for him to get off the phone to find out. "Sounds great. Call me then."

"Who was that?" Stephanie asked as Paul ended the call and crawled back into bed.

"Shawn" Paul replied leaning over and kissing her. "Damn I keep forgetting about that morning breath."

"Shut up" Stephanie replied pushing him away but couldn't help but smile. He seemed like he was in an even better mood. "What did he want?"

"He's coming down to hang out" Paul replied falling back down on the bed behind her. She turned to face him to see him smiling.

"You seem pretty excited."

"I am. Since this whole thing with Shane I haven't really had a friend to really hang out with. I'm excited for you and Shawn to meet too."

"How long is he going to be here?" Stephanie asked getting up from the bed. If they were going to be hanging out with Shawn then she really needed to get up and get started with the day.

"Probably for the weekend. Which means I'll probably need to stay at the apartment this weekend" Paul replied with an apologetic face. He knew she hated Charlotte and having to go to the apartment and having to deal with her.

"Why do you need to stay there though?"

"Because I don't feel right inviting Shawn to stay here when this isn't my place. Even though I've been practically living here, I'm still only a guest. And I'm sure Shawn doesn't want to stay at my apartment alone with Shane and Charlotte especially when Shane and Shawn don't know each other that well."

"I understand" Stephanie replied pushing her hair behind her ears feeling disappointed. She was getting too used to him being here basically all the time and sleeping next to him.

"We're probably only going to be there to sleep anyway. So, you won't even have to come over and deal with Charlotte" Paul replied getting out of the bed and going over to her and kissed her on the forehead.

"Well can I stay with you?" Stephanie asked wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Of course, you can. I just didn't think you'd want to because of Charlotte being there."

"If I can be with you then I can put up with her" Stephanie replied hating the thought of being around Charlotte but it was for only a weekend. "Well I need to go shower and get ready for when he gets here."

"I'll go put some coffee on so when you get out it will be ready for you."

"Thank you. Have I told you lately how great of a boyfriend you are?"

"Oh, I already know I am" Paul replied and she rolled her eyes but gave a small laugh at his cockiness. She then gave him a kiss and started to head to the bathroom as he smacked her ass.

* * *

Stephanie sat at a table with Paul at a restaurant him and Shawn had decided to meet at. It was already a little past noon and she was starving since she hadn't had that much for breakfast. She hadn't been that hungry at breakfast so now her stomach was grumbling because of it but they were awaiting Shawn's arrival before ordering food. So, instead she took a drink of her iced tea that she had ordered when they had first arrived. When she put her drink back down on the table she went to ask Paul if they could just go ahead and order but his cellphone started ringing. A few seconds later she heard him describing the restaurant so she was sure it was Shawn and she hoped that meant he would be there soon.

"Where is he?" Stephanie asked once Paul ended the call.

"Out in the parking lot. He called to make sure he was at the right one" Paul replied taking a drink out of his glass.

"Hey" Paul said standing up when Shawn closer and hugged him. Then they both sat down at the table. "Steph this is Shawn. Shawn this my girlfriend Stephanie."

"Nice to meet you" Stephanie gave him a smile.

"It's nice to finally meet you too. I've heard a lot about you" Shawn replied smiling back at her before grabbing a menu on the table. "Although I heard you were mad at me."

"Only because you interrupted my sleep" Stephanie laughed "but it was just a joke."

"I know I'm just teasing you" Shawn replied with a chuckle. "Have you guys ordered yet?"

"Just something to drink. We've been waiting on you" Paul replied grabbing a menu to look at. She was the only one it seemed that already knew what she wanted. But then again, she had been staring at the menu since she got there.

While Shawn and Paul looked at the menu she took a drink of her iced tea and looked up at the door of the restaurant just as it opened. And to no surprise she saw Shane and of course right behind him was Charlotte. She really was starting to get used to running into those two all the time, at least it seemed like she saw them everywhere. She didn't like it but she was starting to get used to it.

"Don't look now but your crazy ex just walked in" Shawn said looking up from the menu at Paul. Stephanie couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter as she tried to not spit out the drink of her tea she had just taken. She hadn't been expecting anyone to even really pay attention to the fact Charlotte had walked in. But as soon as Shawn had seen her and called her crazy, she really couldn't help but laugh.

"Charlotte and Shane are here?" Paul asked without even looking up from the menu.

"Yup" Shawn replied closing his menu just as their waiter came to the table.

"Great" Paul muttered sarcastically closing his menu. They all rattled off their order to the waiter and once they were done Stephanie glanced over to Shane and Charlotte's table. Shane must have sensed her looking at them because he looked over at her and then looked away just as quickly.

"So, I take it you're still not really on speaking terms with Shane?" Shawn asked Paul and Paul shook his head.

"Nope. Which is going to make a really interesting weekend since we're going to be staying at the apartment with them."

"I'm so excited" Shawn replied sarcastically to Paul before looking over at Stephanie. "She really is crazy. So, the next time she tries making up shit about Paul to you, just ignore her."

Stephanie blushed from embarrassment as she realized that when Paul had gone to visit Shawn after their fight a while ago that Paul had obviously told Shawn about it. She wasn't upset about him telling Shawn, Shawn is his best friend and she also had told Allie about it but it was embarrassing that it even had happened. Now she had moved on from it and learned from her mistake.

"Steph knows that now."

"Good because she's just jealous that he never cared for her as much as he does you" Shawn replied as their waiter approached with their food. Stephanie didn't think she had ever been so happy to see food in her life. Once the waiter left and she started to eat, Shawn looked over at Paul. "Do you remember when you were dating her and she would get so mad and jealous when sometimes you would mention Stephanie?"

"You used to talk about me?" Stephanie asked smiling at the information.

"Sometimes" Paul replied before taking a bite of his food.

"It was a little more than sometimes" Shawn chuckled as Paul rolled his eyes at him.

Stephanie couldn't stop smiling as she tried eating her food. It started to make more sense though of why Charlotte might have been trying to tell her lies about Paul for no reason. She didn't understand though why after all these years it still affected Charlotte, especially since Paul and Charlotte were no longer together. The only reason she could think of was that Charlotte still had feelings for Paul after all these years.

"Anyway, is Shane usually as much of an asshole as he sounds to be? I've only hung out with him a few times when he would tag along with you to visit me. He seemed pretty cool then" Shawn asked before taking a bite of his food.

"He used to be pretty cool and laid back but since I started dating Steph and he started dating Charlotte he's been nothing but an asshole."

"Well he better not be an asshole towards me or me and him will be having problems."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about. It will probably be with me if he's going to be an asshole towards anyone. We had a bad fight on Stephanie's birthday and we haven't really spoken since. So maybe he won't say anything to any of us."

"If we can get that lucky. So, what do you want to do today?" Shawn asked and Paul shrugged. "I was thinking maybe we could go to the bar and drink a little."

"A little usually means a lot for you. We can't anyway."

"Why?"

"Because Steph isn't old enough."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you're not as old as us" Shawn replied looking over at her.

"You guys can go if you want" Stephanie replied feeling bad that Paul wouldn't go because she couldn't. Shawn and Paul didn't get to hang out as much as Stephanie got to hang out with her friends. She wanted him to be able to do whatever they wanted while Shawn was there. She didn't want to be that clingy-needy girlfriend either. "I can always call Allie and hang out with her. You can go have some guy time while I have some girl time."

"Are you sure?" Paul asked looking at her.

"Yeah I'm sure."

"Have I told you lately how great of a girlfriend you are?" Paul asked and she smiled at him from him taking her words from earlier that day.

"Oh, I already know I am" Stephanie repeated his earlier words back to him. But she was pretty sure she didn't pull it off like he had. Paul chuckled and then leaned over and kissed her.

"Come on, I'm trying to eat here" Shawn said making her laugh and kiss Paul again.

* * *

Later that evening after Paul and Shawn headed off to a bar Stephanie sat down on her couch and handed Allie one of the glasses of wine she was holding.

"I'm so glad you suggested this. I've been so stressed" Allie said taking a drink of her wine.

"Why have you been stressed?"

"Work has been really busy lately and then I have to deal with Daniel's mother because she's been coming around a lot. I'm pretty sure she's whispering in his ear how horrible of a wife I'll be and trying to get him to call off the wedding."

"Are you sure it's not just all in your head?"

"Maybe. But I find her whispering to him all the time and it's making me paranoid" Allie sighed and took another huge drink of her wine.

"Well let's get your mind off all of that" Stephanie replied turning on the television and turning it to the marathon of America's Next Top Model. It was a guilty pleasure for both of them.

"We should have gone and got massages and our nails done."

"We'll do that next time" Stephanie replied reaching over and getting the bowl of popcorn she made off the coffee table.

"So, what did you think of Paul's friend?"

"He was nice and funny. I think we'll get along just fine" Stephanie replied turning her head to look towards the stairs as she heard footsteps.

"Hello girls" Linda said coming down the stairs.

"Hey mom" Stephanie replied as Allie turned to look at Linda too.

"Are you going somewhere?" Allie asked as Stephanie noticed how dressed up her mom looked.

"I'm going on a double date with Tamara and her husband. They're going to set me up with someone Tamara's husband works with. Do I look okay?"

"You look great mom. I didn't know you were going to start dating."

"Is it a problem? I mean it's only one date that's probably not going to go anywhere anyway."

"No, it's not a problem. I'm just surprised and honestly, I'm happy that you're getting back out there" Stephanie replied thinking about how she was glad that maybe she was moving on from Vince. It wasn't easy seeing her parents separated and possibly divorced in the future. But after her birthday and seeing how much her mother was hurting from waiting and hoping on Vince to come back, all she wanted was her mother to be happy again.

"Do I really look good?"

"Yes, and if this man isn't eating out of the palm of your hand by the end of night then there's something wrong with him" Allie replied making Linda laugh.

"Thanks guys" Linda replied just as the doorbell rang. "That will be Tamara. I'm riding with her to the restaurant."

"How do you feel about that? Truthfully" Allie asked once Linda left the room to answer the door.

"I'm honestly happy for her. You should have seen her the night of my birthday party. I want to see her happy again and if this will make her happy then I'm one hundred percent behind her" Stephanie replied just as she heard footsteps heading back towards them again.

"I've got to grab my purse" Linda said retrieving her purse and leaning down towards them on the couch. "Melanie is here. She wants to hang out with you."

"Seriously?" Allie asked making a sour face as Linda gave an apologetic look. Stephanie knew Allie hated Melanie still and she was also trying to be cautious of her even though Melanie apologized. But seeing as Melanie just walked into the living room she didn't want to say no. Especially if she had been truthful about wanting to be friends again. She didn't want to make an enemy out of her again.

"Just try to be nice, please?" Stephanie whispered to Allie and Allie rolled her eyes.

"Well, have fun girls and wish me luck" Linda said and they wished her good luck as she headed out of the living room.

"I'm going to need something stronger than wine if I'm going to do this" Allie said watching Melanie as she came over to a chair beside of the couch and sitting down.

"I guess it's a good thing I brought this then" Melanie replied sliding out a bottle of bourbon out of her bag.

"Where did you get that?" Allie asked eyeing the bottle.

"I stole it from my parents" Melanie shrugged. "They'll never miss it. Trust me."

"Great. She's stealing from her own parents. Are you sure you can actually trust her?" Allie asked looking over at Stephanie as Melanie gave a frustrated sigh.

"Look I was being completely honest when I said I wanted to be friends again. I'm really sorry- "

"I don't want to hear it" Allie cut Melanie off and held up her hand towards her. "I don't believe you."

"Fine you don't have to but I'm going to prove you wrong" Melanie replied with a shrug as Allie narrowed her eyes at her.

"Okay I'm going to go get glasses. I'll be right back" Stephanie replied getting up from the couch and hurried to the kitchen. She just hoped they didn't kill each other before she got back. Hopefully Paul was having a better time than her right now.

* * *

The next thing Stephanie knew she was waking up from being in an uncomfortable position. She yawned and went to roll over but then realized she was on the very edge of her bed. Sitting up carefully so she didn't fall, she reached over to her nightstand where she spotted her phone. She was disappointed when it lit up and she saw no missed notifications from Paul. She got up from her bed and almost burst out laughing when she turned around to see Melanie in the middle of the bed with Allie squeezed behind her cuddling her. Stephanie brought up the camera on her phone and started to snap a picture as they started to stir. Without realizing it, her flash had been turned on so when she snapped the picture they both groaned and opened their eyes.

"Good morning sleepy heads" Stephanie giggled as Allie realized that she was cuddling Melanie and quickly jerked her arm away.

"Oh, my God what in the fuck happened last night? I remember drinking and turning on music and acting like idiots as we danced and sang along to the music. That's the last thing I remember" Allie said sitting up in the bed and rubbing her eyes.

"I don't know but I don't feel so good" Melanie groaned and cupped her mouth.

"You better not puke on me" Allie replied quickly getting out of the bed and then brought her hands to her head. "Ow. Why aren't you acting like you feel as horrible as we do?"

"I actually feel okay. I have a little bit of a headache but other than that I feel good" Stephanie replied and shrugged. "But then again you two drank the most."

"Uh oh" Melanie suddenly said and slid out of the bed with her hand over her mouth and left the room quickly.

"On that note, I'm going to go downstairs and make some coffee" Stephanie replied heading out of her room. While she was heading down the stairs she decided to try and call Paul since she hadn't heard from him last night. Unfortunately, it just kept ringing until it went to voicemail.

Once she got to the kitchen she laid her phone on the counter where she could see it in case Paul called her back and then began to make coffee. After a few minutes, she heard Allie and Melanie start to make their way to the kitchen. She couldn't help but giggle at them as they groaned and complained on their way in.

"Feel better?" Stephanie asked Melanie who was holding her stomach.

"A little" Melanie replied sitting down and propping her head against her hand. Allie sat down beside of her and laid her head down.

"Here" Stephanie said grabbing a cup and poured coffee in it just as the coffee got done brewing and handed a cup to Melanie first. Then she poured a cup for Allie and put it in front of her but Allie just stayed with her head down.

Stephanie just shook her head at the sight and grabbed her cellphone and tried calling Paul again.

"Will you two be okay? I need to run out really quick" Stephanie asked once she ended her call once it went to Paul's voicemail again. She was starting to worry about him and she needed to go make sure him and Shawn made it to the apartment last night.

"Just bring me some food back" Allie replied as Stephanie pocketed her cellphone and started heading out of the kitchen. At least she didn't have to worry about them killing each other while she was gone considering they were so hung over.

* * *

After Stephanie arrived at Paul and Shane's apartment building she rushed in and got in the elevator. She was feeling really nervous since she hadn't seen Paul's car in the parking lot and she wasn't sure what Shawn's car looked like. She tried calming herself down by telling herself that maybe they both got as drunk as her friends and took a cab home or something.

When the elevator opened she quickly walked down the hall to their apartment and knocked on the door. She waited a little bit and when there was no answer she knocked again. Nobody still came to the door so she tried the doorknob to find it unlocked and walked in.

The first thing she saw when she walked in was Shawn lying face down on the couch with a blanket thrown over him. She immediately relaxed knowing that if Shawn was here then Paul was too. She pushed the door to close it and accidently closed it a little too loud as Shawn let out a groan.

"Sorry" Stephanie whispered going past the couch and Shawn mumbled something she didn't understand since it was muffled where he was lying face down.

She walked to Paul's room fully ready to climb into his bed and cuddle for a few minutes before she had to home and help her hung over friends. But when she made it to his room it felt like a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped on her and she instantly felt sick to her stomach. Lying in the bed was Paul and Charlotte with the comforter down at their waist and they were naked. Charlotte had her head laying on his chest and pressed against him tightly with his arm around her holding her close.

At that moment, she wanted to rip Charlotte up by her hair and scream and curse at Paul. But then again, she felt too sick to her stomach and her eyes had started to water and there was no way she was going to let him see her cry. So, instead she rushed out of the room and out of the apartment slamming the door behind her. That's where she ran into Shane and by that time the tears were flowing down her face. There was just no stopping them.

"Steph what's wrong?" Shane asked looking concerned which was a first in a very long time. Stephanie just shook her head not being able to speak without sobbing uncontrollably. Instead she headed to the elevator as he called her name. She felt bad just ignoring him like that but he would soon understand what had been wrong.


	18. Chapter 18

Thank for the reviews :) I wanted to updated Moving On next but I don't what I'm doing with that chapter yet and this week seems like it's going to be busy for me. So, I don't know if I'll have time to write it and update it and I already had this chapter of Back Around ready to go so I decided to update it again lol. This is for Iknowyoulovemexoxo. I hope you guys enjoy it :)

* * *

Everything from leaving Shane and Paul's apartment to getting home was a blur to Stephanie. As soon as she got home she ran up to her bedroom and fell on her bed sobbing. She curled herself into a ball on the bed and cried until she felt like she had nothing left. Just as she thought she was done, the faint scent of Paul's cologne that lingered on the sheets set her off again. She got up from the bed and started yanking the comforter, the sheets and pillow cases off into a pile on the floor. Then she sat down on the bed and drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs and starting sobbing uncontrollably again. She wasn't sure how long she had stayed like that until she started to calm down a little and heard her bedroom door open.

"Did you- " Allie started but as Stephanie looked up at her she went silent. "Steph what's wrong?"

"I- I- went to see Paul" Stephanie sniffed and felt like she was going to break down more if she had to repeat what she had seen. Instead she dropped her head to rest her forehead against her knees as she tried to get in control of her emotions. As she closed her eyes and took deep slow breaths she felt the bed dip and then herself being pulled over to rest against Allie's chest. "He- He- cheated. On. Me."

"Fucking bastard" she heard Melanie hiss. She wasn't even sure when Melanie had come into the room because she had been so wrapped up in trying to calm down. But as soon as Melanie said that she wanted to defend him even though she was hurting because of him. She just stayed silent though, she wasn't going to defend him after what he did even if she wanted to. She felt so stupid for trusting him and crying because he had broken her trust especially when she had been warned by the very person who he had cheated on her with.

"Are you sure?" Allie asked sounding confused. Stephanie raised her head from her chest and sat up straight on the bed and wiped at her eyes. The images of them together in his bed kept playing over and over in her head on a loop.

"Yeah I'm sure" Stephanie scoffed "they were naked and cuddled up together with his arm around her."

"That just…makes no sense. He didn't seem like the kind of a guy to do something like that, especially to you. It seemed like you were the most thing important to him."

"Whose side are you on Allie?" Stephanie asked feeling aggravated even though she knew it wasn't Allie's fault. The person she was upset wasn't here for her to take her frustration and anger out on.

"Yours of course. I'm just trying to understand-"

"What is there to understand? He cheated on her. There is a lot of guys out there like Paul who act like your everything to them but turn around and cheat on you at the same time. They fool you into believing it was a mistake and you forgive them because you really believe they love you. Then they just turn around and keep doing it. Those are the kind of guys you really have to look out for" Melanie replied crossing her arms against her chest. Stephanie couldn't help but wonder if Melanie was right. Before Paul she hadn't been in a serious relationship before. She had boyfriends before but she really hadn't been that invested in them and when those relationships ended, they hadn't hurt anything like how she was hurting now. "Trust me Steph. I've been there."

Stephanie was left speechless and the room fell silent. It was like nobody knew what to say at that point. After a few seconds, Stephanie felt her phone start to vibrate in her pocket. She was nervous to look to see who it was but her heart sped up at the thought it could be Paul. She wondered how long it would take for her to stop responding like that to him. Sighing she fished it out of her pocket and saw that it was Shane calling and even though she had finally calmed down somewhat she just couldn't answer it or it would start all over again.

"Why is Shane calling you?" Allie asked looking at Stephanie's phone.

"Because it was Charlotte that Paul cheated on me with. I passed Shane in the hallway as I was leaving and he asked me what was wrong but I just couldn't answer him. I still can't" Stephanie replied shaking her head and tossing her phone on the bed beside of her.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Allie replied getting up from the bed and clenched her hands into fists. "Her? He seriously cheated on you with her? It's bad enough that he cheated on you but to do it with the one person he knows you hate, that's really fucking low."

"I know" Stephanie sniffed feeling like she was going to start crying all over again.

"Steph?" Stephanie heard Linda call on the other side of her door. She wiped at her eyes the best she could not wanting to make her mom worry about her.

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to run some errands. Do you need anything?"

"No" Stephanie replied because the only thing she needed was her heart to be mended. But that was going to take a while and there was nothing her mother could do about it.

"Okay be back soon" Linda replied and Stephanie heard her start to go downstairs. She was glad Linda hadn't come into the room because she would have known something was wrong. No matter how hard she wiped at her eyes she was sure her eyes were red from crying.

"So, it's over between you two? Right? Please don't tell me you're going to take him back after this" Allie replied looking at her.

"It's over. I'm not going back to him" Stephanie replied shaking her head as another tear slipped down her cheek.

"We're here for you Steph. We'll help you through this" Melanie said coming over and sitting down beside of her on the bed. In that moment, she was grateful to have both Allie and Melanie there with her. Here they were with hang overs and they were taking care of her and it gave her hope. Maybe just maybe she could get through this with these two on her side helping her.

"Thanks guys" Stephanie replied with a small smile and they both sandwiched her in a hug and she couldn't help but laugh. But the moment didn't last long before the sound of the doorbell ringing over and over interrupted their hug.

"I think I know who that is" Allie said rolling her eyes as the doorbell kept ringing and ringing. "I'm going to go deal with him."

Stephanie just nodded her head knowing that it was probably Paul just as Allie predicted and she didn't think she could face him because she feared she'd just believe him like before. She wondered now if the conversation they had before about Charlotte and her lies had actually all been true.

"Tear him a new asshole Allie!" Melanie called after her as Allie left the room. It kind of pissed Stephanie off though that Paul would come here after what he did to her. Did he just want to hurt her further? Or did he actually believe he could give her excuses that she would believe and forgive him?

The more she sat there thinking about it, the angrier she became until she got off the bed and started heading downstairs. She was barely even aware that Melanie had followed her with how focused on her anger she was.

"This isn't any of your business. This is between me and Stephanie" Stephanie heard Paul say just as she rounded the corner and saw him. Allie was standing in front of him blocking his path to be able to get inside and he was standing on the porch glaring at her.

"When you hurt my best friend then it becomes my business. She doesn't want to see you anyway and I'm not going to let you fill her head with a bunch of bullshit lies. You can just go back to your little whore you cheated on her with and be miserable. Because one day you're going to realize how much you fucked up but it won't do any good because it's all said and done now" Allie said as Paul cursed and ran his hand through his hair before he looked over Allie and his eyes connected with hers.

"Steph" Paul called to her and she had to restrain herself from rushing over to him. Allie looked back at her for a second and then turned back to Paul.

"Go fuck yourself" Allie said coldly to him before stepping back inside and slamming the door in his face. But a second later he started banging on the door and calling for her through the door. "What are you doing down here?"

"The more I sat up there in bed and thought about how he come here to try and give me excuses the more pissed off I became."

"You want to talk to him, don't you?" Allie asked as Stephanie nodded her head. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I'm with Allie here. I don't think it's a good idea" Melanie said shaking her head.

"I'll be fine guys. I'm not going to let him trick me into believing him and forgiving him" Stephanie replied heading to the door where Paul was still banging on it.

She didn't give them time to say anything else as she took a deep breath and opened the door. Paul let his hand fall to his side and looked relieved to see her.

"Steph- " he started but Stephanie cut him off by holding up her hand and he stepped back as she walked out on to the porch and shut the door behind her.

"What do you want?" Stephanie asked glaring at him and crossing her arms.

"What you saw this morning isn't what it looked like" Paul replied and she scoffed knowing of course he was going to deny it and make excuses. "It isn't."

"So, I guess I just imagined you and Charlotte naked and cuddled up in your bed?"

"I'm not saying you didn't see what you did. I'm just saying it isn't what it looked like."

"Right" Stephanie replied with a laugh even though she didn't find any of this funny. "Let me guess. You were just so drunk last night that you didn't know what you were doing."

"I was drunk last night. But I wasn't so drunk that I don't remember last night. Shawn and I got a cab back and he crashed on the couch as soon as we got in so I threw a blanket over him. Then I went to my room and crashed too. Charlotte wasn't in there and I did nothing with her. I was out of it all night and the only time I woke up was when Shane starting shouting at me and Charlotte."

"Sure" Stephanie replied looking away from him so she didn't have to look at the pained expression on his face. She wasn't going to feel bad for him not after hurting her this bad.

"I'm telling the truth Steph. Hell, I didn't even see Shane or Charlotte once Shawn and I got back to the apartment. I would say you could even ask Shawn but he was drunker than me and crashed out so he won't remember."

"How convenient for you" Stephanie sneered already getting tired of hearing his bullshit excuses. Even though part of her wanted to believe him, she wouldn't. She wouldn't be like her mother and years from now be sitting at a table with her daughter on her daughter's birthday, hoping things would get better with Paul because he cheated. While he was off on the phone with the whore he cheated with and left her for. Her future was not going to look like that.

"I didn't cheat on you Stephanie" Paul said breaking the silence that had fell between them in the last few seconds.

"I'm tired of hearing the bullshit lies" Stephanie replied turning towards the door to open it.

"You don't really don't trust me, do you?" Paul asked his voice laced with hurt. "I thought after our talk last time you actually trusted me. If you did then you would believe me that I wouldn't cheat on you. I don't know when or how she got in my bed but I didn't do anything with her."

"No I don't trust you. You proved that I can't trust you because what I walked in on this morning looked too intimate for 'nothing happened' and that you hadn't even seen her last night" Stephanie replied looking at him and then turned back again to go inside.

"I wouldn't hurt you like that Stephanie. I wouldn't cheat on you because I love you" Paul replied just as she opened the door and stepped inside. She thought that he couldn't hurt her any worse but she had been wrong. The first time he told her he loved her and it was only because he fucked up and wanted her to forgive him.

"I find that really hard to believe" Stephanie whispered trying not to cry as she turned around to face him. Then she grabbed the door and slammed it in his face just as Allie had earlier.

Stephanie turned around to see her friends looking at her and she fell back against the door and slid down it and brought her knees to her chest and started crying once again. Allie and Melanie rushed over next to her and hugged her as she let the pain take over.

* * *

Later that night Stephanie laid on her bed with a new sheet, comforter and pillow cases and stared off in the now dark room. She had been there ever since Allie and Melanie had helped her upstairs with her sobbing uncontrollably and they had even put all the new stuff on her bed. They had stayed with her all day up until maybe ten or twenty minutes ago when they decided to go get something to eat. They tried to talk her into going with them but she refused because she wasn't hungry. She just felt numb and broken.

After a few minutes, Stephanie heard the front door slam from all the way in her room. At first, she thought maybe Allie and Melanie were back but it didn't make sense of why they would slam the door. Feeling curious she got up from her bed and headed towards the stairs and was surprised when she made it halfway down the stairs that Shane was in the living room.

"Shane what are you doing here?" Stephanie asked walking down the rest of the stairs as her brother turned to look at her.

"I just needed out of that apartment. Are you okay?" Shane asked coming up to her once she stepped off the last stair. She had to admit it was sweet of him to be worrying about her even though he was also cheated on too. It almost made up for how he had been such an asshole to her for months. But she wasn't going to let all that go so easy, maybe she wouldn't give him hell about it right now though.

"I'll be okay…eventually. Right?" Stephanie asked and shrugged not really knowing what else to say.

"We both will" Shane replied with a nod of his head before pulling her to him and hugging her. "I'm so sorry for everything."

"You're not getting off the hook that easily."

"I wouldn't expect you to let me" Shane chuckled "but just know that I am sorry."

"Where had you been when I saw you in the hallway this morning?" Stephanie asked as they stopped hugging.

"I was coming home from Zach's. Me and Charlotte had been hanging out at his house last night and Zach and I started drinking. Zach offered us the guest room when I had too much so we ended up crashing there but I guess sometime during the night she left. I woke up to a text from her saying she couldn't get comfortable enough to go to sleep and just wanted to go home to our bed. She said she didn't want to wake me and she was getting a cab home and she would see me when I got home. I wasn't expecting to go home to that though."

"So, what happened when you found them this morning?" Stephanie asked not being able to let what happened go. It was like a scab she kept picking at and it was never going to fully heal if she didn't let it. But she just couldn't stop.

"When I found them I just instantly started screaming at them. They didn't even try to act a little guilty that they had been caught" Shane shook his head lost in thought. It made her feel even more sick to her stomach hearing it and from the way Shane was talking, it sounded like Paul fully knew what he was doing last night. But he just didn't care and then tried lying to her that he hadn't even seen Charlotte. "I gave Paul a lot of shit especially about seeing you come out of the apartment so tore up. Then I told them pack their shit and get out."

"They're both gone now?"

"Paul is. He'll be back to get his stuff out though" Shane sighed and looked away as she narrowed her eyes.

"What about Charlotte?" Stephanie asked crossing her arms as he shuffled his feet and wouldn't look at her. "Shane."

"She started crying and saying she didn't have anywhere to go right now. So, I told her she had a week to find somewhere to go and if she still didn't have anywhere to go then it wasn't my problem."

"She doesn't deserve that. You should have just kicked out right now. Why doesn't she just go where ever Paul is going?" Stephanie asked hating the idea of the two even being together.

"I don't know. I just felt bad that she moved here for me and has no friends or family here."

"You felt bad for her? She cheated on you Shane, she should be the one feeling bad right now."

"I know that Steph. Call me stupid if you want but you just can't shut off how you feel about someone even if they hurt you. I couldn't help but feel bad" Shane replied and she shook her head in disgust. She knew he was right about not being able to just shut your feelings off. But at least she didn't take Paul's bullshit and then decide to help him out either. If Charlotte stayed with Shane until she found somewhere else to go she knows Shane will forgive her. Charlotte will somehow talk her way into staying. What could she do though? Shane wouldn't listen to her, he hadn't listened to her since Charlotte showed up.

"You are stupid" Stephanie replied and walked away feeling angry.

"Gee thanks" Shane replied sarcastically before Stephanie walked back up the stairs to go to her room. She was so pissed. How was it even fair that Charlotte somehow ended up with what she wanted? While Stephanie was depressed and had nothing but a cheating ex-boyfriend at the end of it all.

But even as she thought those things, deep down in the pit of her stomach she had this feeling that something wasn't right. Now that she wasn't so angry and she replayed the conversation between Paul and her, then the one with her and Shane, there were some things that weren't adding up to her. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking?


	19. Chapter 19

I'm sorry it took so long to get this updated! It's been hectic for me these past few months and I'm hoping things are finally starting to settle down. I was finally able to sit down and write this and I hope to get my other stories updated too. Thank you for the reviews from the last chapter! This is chapter is written in Paul's perspective and I want to thank Iknowyoulovemexoxo who gave me the idea to write this chapter in Paul's perspective. I hope you guys enjoy :)

* * *

Paul sat on his bed looking down at his phone he was holding as his thumb hovered over her name. It wasn't the first time today he found himself doing this only to end up backing out of calling her. It had been almost two weeks since she had broken up with him and he missed her. He wanted to call and hear her voice, try to get her to believe him that nothing had happened with Charlotte. But she hadn't believed him the day he had tried to talk to her about it. Hell, she hadn't even believed him when he had told her he loved her. As if it hadn't hurt enough that she didn't believe that he wouldn't hurt her like that she went and twisted the knife deeper sending searing pain through his chest. And yet somehow that didn't compare to the pain he was in now that he was without her in his life. He wasn't used to this kind of pain, he had never loved someone the way he loves her. It was the worst pain he had ever felt.

He let out a frustrated sigh while his thumb went to the side of his phone pushing the button to lock it and watched the screen go dark just like earlier. She probably wouldn't pick up anyway and what would he even say that he hadn't already said the day she broke up with him? There was no proof that he hadn't done what she believed, all he had was his word and she clearly didn't trust that. He couldn't think of anything else to prove he was innocent, but just walking away and moving on with his life didn't feel like a possibility right now. Not until he tried all he felt like he could. Even though there was a time he didn't know if he could be with her if she didn't trust him. Now that he knew what it was like to be without her it had changed his perception. Somehow, they could work through her trust issues and he wasn't going to just let her go without trying.

Lost in thought it took him a second to realize his phone was ringing but when he did his heart started to accelerate slightly hoping that it was Stephanie. But when he finally looked down at the screen and seen the number his chest tightened and his shoulders slumped as the hopeful feeling diminished quickly. He tossed the phone to the other side of the bed and ran his hands through his hair. Why did it always seem like the last person he wanted to talk to was the one constantly trying to call him instead of the person he wanted to call him? He pushed himself up off the bed and started to pace the small space of a room he had. It was probably a lot bigger than he felt it was but after cooping himself up it for the last week and a half it felt suddenly too tiny to him. After a few more seconds of pacing he wiped his palms on his jeans and grabbed his cellphone from the bed and put it in his pocket. He needed out of the hotel, he had no idea where to go but he needed out for a little bit. He grabbed his shoes and put them on and then grabbed his jacket and slipped it on before leaving his room and headed towards the elevator to leave.

* * *

After about twenty minutes of trying to figure out where to go Paul found himself walking into a dim lit bar which was probably the last place he should be. At first when he left the hotel he thought of going to the gym, which is honestly where he should be, but he wasn't feeling in the mood for it. It had been that way since the break up and he couldn't force himself to go. The bar seemed like the next best choice right now, maybe a drink or two could help him unwind and to just stop thinking about everything. Though he wasn't sure it was possible to stop thinking about everything with just a drink or two, it would probably take a lot more than that but he was willing to give it a try.

He found an empty seat at the end of the bar where there were two empty seats beside of him so he could hopefully be left alone. All he wanted to do was sit and enjoy his drink but as soon as he ordered his drink he felt a presence behind him and then the seat next to him was being occupied.

"Hey" he tensed and closed his eyes as his jaw clenched at the familiar voice.

"Are you stalking me now?" Paul asked sharply finally looking over at her.

"No" she replied crossing her arms and looked away from him. He could tell he hurt her feelings but he could give a fuck less. "I came in to get a drink and I happen to see you and I thought I'd see how you were doing."

He couldn't help but let out a humorless laugh at her question. It was obvious how he was doing just by his physical appearance so she already knew the answer to that.

"What do you want Charlie?"

"I hate that nickname" She crossed her legs and grimaced before trying to get the bartender's attention.

"I know" Paul smirked as she narrowed her eyes at him. He ignored her though and took a drink from his glass as the bartender approached them and Charlotte turned her attention towards him.

"So…" Charlotte turned back to him after ordering her drink. "You and Stephanie broke up?"

Paul gripped his glass hard and his other hand clenched into a fist at the mention of Stephanie's name especially coming from Charlotte. He was sure she knew damn well that him and Stephanie broke up but the way she said it came out as more of a question. It was a topic that was not up for discussion, especially with her. She was half the reason he had lost Stephanie and was as miserable as he currently was.

"What are you even doing here?"

"I told you I came in to get a drink-"

"No. Not in this bar but here in this part of the state. If I remember correctly Shane yelled at both of us to get the fuck out and I know you know nobody else here besides Shane and me to continue to live here. So why are you still here?" Paul asked with a hard edge to his voice. Charlotte got quiet as her cheeks tinged pink and she looked down at the floor. When she looked back at him she had a sheepish look on her face. It was kind of unexpected for him to see because Charlotte hadn't ever got embarrassed easily or at least never let anyone see if she did.

"I have to find a new place back home so Shane said I could stay the week but I still haven't found anywhere to go" she tucked her hair behind her ears and cleared her throat before continuing. "I was hoping after our night together and now that we're both single you and I could give things a try again. We've both have changed and matured since. I think things would be different this time and I've missed you."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me" Paul muttered shaking his head. "You haven't changed a bit Charlotte and there was no 'our night'. I don't know how you ended up in my bed or why you were naked but I know nothing happened between us. You need to understand that what we had in the past is in the past. I don't want to be with you and I don't feel the same way about you that you do me."

"You're the one that started everything that night, not me. You kept kissing me and telling me that you missed me and loved me. Now you're pretending you don't remember any of it."

"I'm not pretending. I don't remember any of that happening. The last thing I remember is throwing a blanket over Shawn who was passed out drunk and I went to bed alone. You weren't even at the apartment and I don't remember waking up at any point that night. If any of what you said happened then I must have doing it in my sleep after you came into my room and got into my bed uninvited. If that's the case then I thought you were Stephanie because she is the one I've only ever really loved" Paul replied taking a drink from his glass and then rubbed his temples to try to ease the headache that was starting to form.

"Whatever. Just keep pretending our night didn't happen. I just wished I wouldn't have fucked up my relationship with Shane for this" Charlotte scoffed "I can't believe I thought you had changed. You're still the asshole you always were."

"I'm an asshole?" Paul snapped finally losing his patience with this conversation. "You're honestly the last person I want to talk to. Stephanie broke up with me because of you but I sat here and talked to you so if that makes me an asshole then I guess I am."

"You are" Charlotte replied with a huff as she got up from her seat and headed towards the bartender. Paul turned his attention back to his drink hoping he could finally get some peace and quiet. He was sure he pissed Charlotte off enough that she wouldn't come back over and hopefully enough that she'd finally stop calling him constantly.

Paul finished off his drink just as Charlotte starting walking back towards him and his shoulders sagged in relief as she kept walking past him. Now that she was gone he felt like maybe he could relax and finally enjoy having a drink so he decided to order another one. Then he'd probably end up going back to his dreaded hotel room but hopefully he could just crash onto his bed and fall asleep quickly.

* * *

Stumbling into the elevator he punched the button for the floor of the apartment he used to live in. This hadn't been part of his plan at all but neither had having more than two drinks. But that was exactly what had happened after he started thinking about the breakup, Shane throwing him out of the apartment, Charlotte still being allowed to live there. All he could feel was his heartbeat pounding against his chest and the alcohol starting to blur his vision as he stumbled back out of the elevator when it reached his destination. He wasn't sure what he was even going to accomplish by coming here and confronting Shane. But he wasn't about to be thrown out and having to stay in a hotel while Charlotte was still allowed to live there. It was bullshit and he should have known Shane would forgive her and make him out to be the bad guy in all of this. It fueled his anger even further until he was almost to the apartment door and it opened and he saw her step into the hallway. And it felt like he suddenly went from stumbling drunk to stone cold sober.

Their eyes connected and he knew he had been wrong earlier about being without her hurt worse than anything he had felt because looking at her and seeing the pain etched on her face that was caused by him hurt worse than his own pain. All he wanted to do was stop her pain, pull her into his arms and comfort her, kiss her, hold her until it all faded away. But he didn't have that privilege anymore.

"Steph" he called out her name taking a step towards her while she took a step back and shook her head at him.

"Please don't" Stephanie pleaded looking at him as she started to tear up. "This is already hard enough as it is."

"I miss you" Paul replied taking a step towards her again he couldn't help himself he just needed to be near her. This time she stood still so he kept going until there was hardly any space in between them. "I'm miserable without you Steph."

"I- Paul- " Stephanie started but stopped and shook her head. She looked away from him and stared off looking like she was trying to figure out what she was trying to say.

"Look I know what you walked in on looked really bad but I didn't do anything with Charlotte. Tell me what I can do to get you to believe that and trust me because I'll do anything."

"Paul you're drunk. You probably don't even fully comprehend what you're doing or saying right now."

"Yeah I'm a little drunk" he said as he swayed forward a little. Maybe he was a little more drunk than he thought but it wasn't like he was a rambling drunk. "But I understand what I'm trying to say to you. I would be saying it to you whether I was drunk or not."

"Maybe you should go sleep it off-"

"I'm not giving up on us Steph. I don't understand why you are giving up on us on so easily."

"You think this is easy for me?" Stephanie asked putting her hand to her chest. "This is hard for me too. It's hard to see you and be around you without wanting to forget about it all and wanting to erase the image of you and her together. But I can't do that because every time I close my eyes or think about you it's all I see and it makes me sick to my stomach all over again."

"Nothing happened. She was nowhere in the apartment when Shawn and I came in that night, I went to bed alone and I was out of it all night. None of it makes sense to me just as much as it doesn't make sense to you. But I think there is a part of you that wants to believe me, you're just too scared to."

"Of course, I'm scared. What if I trust you and take you back only for you to end up proving I was right by cheating on me? I've watched my mother cry over my father for cheating on her and yet she would take him back in a heartbeat if she could. I don't want my life to be like that."

"It doesn't have to be. I'm not like your father, I wish you could see that. I know you're scared especially after seeing what your parents are going through but don't judge our relationship based on them. Take a chance and trust me Steph. I know we can work through this, I know it will be hard but we can do it" Paul said as she looked to the floor for a moment and then back to him with some uncertainty in her eyes. He could see she was struggling with wanting to believe him but her trust issues were still holding her back. "I'm going to prove to you that nothing happened with Charlotte. I don't know how but I'm going to try. Like I said I'm not giving up on us."

They stood there for a couple of minutes in silence and Paul knew he said all he could say and it seemed like she wasn't going to say anymore. So, he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead letting his lips linger as he enjoyed being able to kiss her even if it was only on the forehead. Then he stepped back and turned around and started walking back down the hallway, his anger from earlier gone. He no longer felt like confronting or dealing with Shane now but as he reached the elevator he heard her call his name and he turned around to see her coming towards him.

"Let me give you a ride since you're drunk."

"Okay" he replied pushing the button for the elevator. He didn't really need a ride back to the hotel. He could've just got a cab but he wanted to be around her for as long as he could.

It didn't seem to take long once the elevator arrived for them to make it down to the lobby and out of the building. Paul followed alongside of Stephanie to her car occasionally letting his fingers brush against hers until they had to separate. He went to the passenger side and opened his door once she unlocked them and got in. Once they put on their seatbelts and he told her the hotel he was staying at she started the car and headed out of the parking lot.

The ride was mostly silent except for the low sound of the radio playing. He mostly watched her as she stared straight ahead biting her bottom lip occasionally which was something she did when something was on her mind.

"What are you thinking about?" Paul asked making her take glimpse over at him.

"I just can't stop thinking about you and Charlotte together and how you were holding her close to you. If nothing happened why were you naked and holding her?"

"I think she came into my room while I was asleep. I really don't remember waking up at all but the only reason I would ever hold her was because I thought it was you. I don't know if she was completely naked but I was in my boxers which is how I always sleep."

"Why would she come into your room while you were asleep?"

"Because she wants to get back together."

"How do you know that?" Stephanie asked looking over at him after they came to a stop at a red light. He grimaced at the question hoping she wouldn't try to read more into his answer than what it really was.

"She came into the bar I was in tonight and sat down beside of me and instantly started talking to me. I didn't really want to talk to her but I wanted to see what she wanted and see if I could get rid of her quickly. That's when she started saying that me and her were both single now and she wanted us to try things between us again. Which I told her no because I don't feel the same about her that she does me and that you are the only woman I have ever really loved" Paul replied and Stephanie nodded her head but stayed quiet and started driving again as the light turned green. "I didn't invite her there if that's what you're thinking. I didn't even know she was going to come in there. All I wanted was to have a drink or two and be left alone to try and relax."

"I believe you Paul" Stephanie said and it gave him hope that maybe she could try to trust him. "About that at least."

"Well at least you believe me about something" Paul murmured to himself as they made it to his hotel and she pulled into the parking lot. He turned towards her gently grabbed her chin with his fingers and looked in her eyes. "Just please think about what I said earlier about taking a chance on me."

"I will" Stephanie promised and that was all he could really ask for. He leaned over and quickly kissed her lips because he knew it could be the last time he would ever have the chance again.

"Be safe going home." He opened his door and got out and shut it behind him. Then he walked to the entrance of the hotel and then turned around and watched her leave.

After she was out of his sight he turned around and headed inside the hotel. He walked to the elevator suddenly feeling like a part of him was gone. It was like there was a hole inside of his chest and the pain from not being with Stephanie was back in full force. As he stood waiting on the elevator trying to focus on anything but the pain and empty feeling in his chest, his phone started to ring. He slipped it out of his pocket and gave an exasperated sigh at the number. Apparently ignoring the call wasn't going to ever give her the hint but he already knew that since she wouldn't leave him alone earlier.

"I thought you said I was an asshole" Paul said after accepting the call and putting his phone to his ear.

"You were being an asshole."

"What do you want Charlotte?"

"I just want to talk" she replied and he rolled his eyes. He was about to tell her that it wasn't going to happen and to just leave him alone, but an idea started to form.

"You know, you're right I was being an asshole earlier. I was in a bad mood but maybe you were right about some things. What do you say about meeting tomorrow for dinner and we'll talk."


End file.
